445- #LeonadNimoyDay 2021

art credit : Mr Spock by my wife. Last year we changed together the background to black and grey, and we both painted his famous quote, seen to the left. 
Photo by me. 

After Boston's announcement, today is the first official #LeonadNimoyDay , high time to officially honor him and his works. 

He was an American actor, film director, photographer, author, singer, and songwriter, best known for his role as Mr Spock, first on Star Trek (1966), aka TOS (the Original Series), reprising in 6 Star Trek TOS-crew movies, directing the 3rd and 4th of them, writing or co-writing for the 1st, 3rd, 4th & 6th, voicing in the meantime in the animated series and returning in an arc in The Next Generation, and finally in the 2009 reboot. 

Mr Spock, as a character, was influential and important in my earlier life ; I grew up in a religious cult, witnessing domestic violence, surviving various forms of abuse, witnessing political unrest and violence all around.

I struggled with all of those but also with mixed cultures, between my origins and my new country. 

Mr Spock's character, as Half Vulcan, half Human, with a strong leaning towards his Vulcan self, for critical, logical thinking, in control of his emotions, also struggled at times with the illogical, emotional Humans around, and his own Human half. 

His stories often reflected this duality and the efforts in uniting them. 

Mr Spock is that One character who gave me some tools in reorganizing my thoughts, attempting to come to terms with my own cultural mixes, my emotions and outburst born from the violence around me. 

Through some recurrent dialogues and specific episodes, Spock spoke about that violence we all have within, and that it's foolish to deny, but that, as a Vulcan, he learned to control it - except when an external cause would make him loose it and he'd become violent, or emotionally unbalanced. Those tools he had to regain his control and become himself again helped me to reduce my own outbursts, as I learned to use them - with mitigated success for some years, but enough at the time. 

I also learned to embrace my uniqueness as well as my mixed cultures and origins.

Though I had to continue suffering from my other traumatic environment and causes (mentioned above), I also learned some patience and hope, based on Mr Spock, and Star Trek's optimism, waiting for better days, which eventually came when I finally moved back to my birth country. 

In a sense, I had adopted Mr Spock as my chosen father, because my biological one was so awful - not only not teaching me about life, but also abusing my emotionally, psychologically, with his plans to make me his best disciple, his best mouthpiece to spread his word, in short, to be his best preacher and bring people over to be subjugated by him as well... But, Mr Spock got in the way with his accidental fathering and teaching me tools and hope. 

I felt that Spock's own issues with his father, Sarek, reflected my issue of not taking up with my father's plans for me, and also the emotional difficulties in talking to him - not that my bio father would ever listen and take me into account. After all, he was the cult leader, so, I threw his teachings for those of Mr Spock, with a twist : I remained an emotional person, just in better control of violent outbursts that were causing me trouble in school and personal unrest.

The importance that Mr Spock had for me is a huge part why I kept watching and re-watching Star Trek. Evidently, the show's sociopolitical messages and overall optimism were often poignant and well told, so I went back also for those, and the show and several of its sequels became my safe spaces, and comfort series.

So, to this day, I watch Star Trek, and even though TOS is kitch and has a lot of issues, and that later shows reduced those issues to an extent, I remain a faithful viewer of the original, in huge part, for Mr Spock. 

Some years, as a geek, I'd celebrate his birthday, but this year, it's an official day, created by his birth city of Boston ; so, I'll wish my readers a Happy Leonard Nimoy Day, because he was more than Mr Spock.

You can watch his episodes, you can see him in two seasons of Mission : impossible, and a number of other tv and movie roles (list on imdb), read his biographies (I am not Spock, and I am Spock), learn about him also via other sources, such as his own son, Adam Nimoy's, documentary for the love of Spock, wiki pages in your language, see his photography works, or even listen to his music. 

Leonard Nimoy was, and wasn't, Mr Spock. He was an actor, film director, author, etc, but most of all, he was a person, husband and father. Today, we celebrate the very first official #LeonadNimoyDay so,  have a good one!