Age of the Geek

Them's the breaks
     Time flies when you’re having fun. Less so when you have a fractured tibia.
     It’s been just over a month since I busted up my leg, which hopefully puts me on the tail end of recovery. A couple days after this sees print I’ll be heading to the doctor to see if I’m ready to start walking on two legs again.
     I know I’m ready. I’m more than ready. But better to make sure my leg and I are on the same page before I try putting any weight on it.
     It’s been a long month, but it’s not without its benefits. Outside of the cabin fever, this unfortunate situation has left me with a few good lessons and revelations.
 
     1. It’s good to be a packrat.
     Last year I returned home from ComicCon with a small tote bag given away by Warner Bros. I believe it came with a t-shirt, a water bottle, a lanyard, and a few other promotional items for Warner Bros.’ various television shows.
     For more than a year that bag floated around the apartment without purpose. If human hands ever touched it, it was only to move it from one shelf to another, or pick it up off the carpet.
     There was really no logical reason to keep it around, but I’ve always had that little voice inside my head that says, “Well, it’s not really taking up that much space. And you never know, you may find a use for it some day.”
     And so I did.
     With my hands occupied by crutches, that little bag has become my primary way to carry around my cell phone, tablet, water bottle, or whatever else I needed to get from Point A to Point B.
     It’s amazing how much appreciation you can have for the ability to carry your own stuff. That neglected tote bag went a long way towards regaining a measure of independence.
     Speaking of which...
 
     2. If you want something done, do it yourself.
     This rule still applies even when you can’t walk. I’m not saying that my roommates and family haven’t been more than accommodating to my situation. Quite the contrary. I’m sure I’ve spent a year’s worth of accumulated favors and good will in the last few weeks.
     But at the end of the day, or more accurately, at the beginning of the day when your roommates are at work and there’s nobody to bring you a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit from Hardees, there are some things you’ve just got to work out for yourself.
     Most people don’t need to establish a multi-step plan before taking on the task of heating and transporting a bowl of soup, nor do they have to carry out that plan standing exclusively on one leg. But you play the cards you’re dealt.
     Things need to get done, broken leg or not. The ability to recognize the things you can’t do is important, but it’s equally important to remember there is often more than one solution to a problem.
     After all, as appealing as it sounds, you can’t spend all day sitting around watching Star Trek.
     Most of the day, sure, but not all of it. Which brings me to lesson three.
 
     3. Star Trek is good.
     I’m not just a packrat of physical items of course. The instinct that kept me from throwing out that Warner Bros. bag is the same one that has kept the various shows of the Star Trek franchise sitting on my Netflix queue for virtually the entire time I’ve had my account.
     I honestly didn’t think I’d ever get around to actually watching them, but I kept them on my list nonetheless.
     Between the lack of summer programming and my newfound abundance of spare time, this has been as good a time as any to reacquaint myself with “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” All seven seasons of it.
     In spite of it being the Star Trek show that I grew up on, I’ve never actually seen the whole series. At least not in order. My exposure to the show was largely through syndicated reruns on various networks, which meant I may watch a season one episode one day and a season four episode the next, and the only clue I’d have to tell the difference was whether or not Commander Riker had a beard.
     Watching the show as an adult, you pick up on a lot of things that would go over the head of a child. As a kid, all of that talking is just technobabble` between phaser fights and starships firing photon torpedoes at each other. Or, more often than not, a way to avoid phaser fights and starships firing photon torpedoes at each other.
     As an adult, the social commentary becomes easier to read and the philosophical debates become easier to follow. Thankfully, the stories and characters stand the test of time far better than the early 90’s special effects. There are several episodes with plots that remain socially relevant today, and plenty of people out there that could benefit from the philosophical refresher course they provide.
 
     Travis Fischer is a newswriter for Mid-America Publishing and is starting on “Deep Space Nine” now.