Tuesday, 02 June 2009

• Tlinghan jIH: Confessions of a Closet Klingon

  

   

  Tlinghan jIH:  Confessions of a Closet Klingon

   

   

  “A promise made is a debt unpaid.”  or so the saying goes.  I’m writing to ante up on a promise that I made to shatterFocus a few weeks ago.  ShatterFocus posted a blog that invited anyone to ask her a question about herself and if she answered that question, you were to man up and spill the beans about a question that she would ask you.  Her question to me was “What’s your secret or dark pleasure?”  So, here it is.

   

  

   

   

  I am a closet Klingon

   

   

   I haven’t always been a closet Klingon.  When I got hocked on the original Star Trek series as a young Trekker, Klingons were the archetypical bad guys the Federation good guys would beat when every they came out to wreak havoc on the universe. (Note: Not Trekkie.  Trekkie is what a non-Trekker calls a Trekker. Doing this at a convention will, at best, give you a reputation of being an ignorant duffus and at worst, a bat’lath in the back, But I digress.)  After the series was cancelled and the cartoon series of Star Trek had run its course, there was an explosion of books that keep the Star Trek universe and the crew of the Enterprise going “where no man has gone before”.  One of the best was “The Final Refection” by John Ford.  The entire book was about Klingons, their life philosophy and values, and what effects they had on a Klingon male throughout his life and service to the Empire.  I liked what I saw.  Here was a race that valued honor, loyalty to your clan, honesty and openness in words and actions, t fighting for a cause, and sacrifice for the good of the group as positive values.  My impression was that Klingons were a cross between Japan’s samurai and the ancient Vikings. When Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager hit the scene, Klingons went from bad guys to

   

   

  desirable bad boys                                                          (and girls)

   

  of the universe with many Trekkers.

   

  So, what makes me a closet Klingon?  Well, one of my life goals is to learn Klingon fluently before I die.  Laura thinks I’ve lost it.  “Why do you want to learn a language that no one but a few Trekkies (low rumble in my throat) even speak?” she asked me when I shared this tidbit of information with her.  I guess that answer would be the same reason a person masters tea ceremony, kyudo, or many of the cultural arts.  It’s the process of attempting to achieve a difficult task that teaches you more than the product of doing the task.  Secondly, I have been incorporating some of the philosophy of the Klingon culture into my lifestyle.  Simple food and surroundings, loyalty to friends and family, honesty and forthrightness in speech, and never giving up on a job even if it is difficult to finish, are some of the things that I’ve observed in the Klingon way that I believe I would do well to follow in my own life.  Finally, the emphasis that Klingons put on being physically and mentally fit is just plain common sense to me.  I’m creeping up on the end of my middle age years and from where I stand, getting old isn’t for cowards.  I want to keep lean and mean until the day I die and that means aerobic training, weights and martial arts for me. 

   

  

  So, there you have it.  I raise my cup of qa'vIn to you all and say Tlinghan jIH and Hu’tegh proud of it!

   

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