In case you don't recognize the reference, the title of this blog entry is a quote from Jean-Luc Picard (played by the illustrious Patrick Stewart) aboard the starship Enterprise on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Picard is one of my favorite Star Trek characters, and my absolute favorite Captain. He is kind, considerate, empathetic, wise, conscientious, evolved, tactful, diplomatic, and has a strong sense of both duty and morality, everything I desire in a good leader (everything I desire in humanity!). And when he orders a beverage from the food replicators on the ship, it is almost always "Tea - Earl Grey, Hot".
Yesterday, I got to enjoy a cup of my very own "Tea - Earl Grey, Hot" which was delightful for so many reasons. It was delightful to have a warm cup in my cold hands on a blustery winter evening. It was delightful to taste the deliciously citrus undertones and to smell the rich aromatics of the tea (I am so thankful that I have not had Covid, and have not lost my sense of taste or smell-- I never could have imagined being thankful for my senses, but here we are!). Most importantly, it was delightful that I did not get sick afterwards, a concern I never used to have before this past November. I was diagnosed with gastritis (stomach inflammation), which is an awful ailment that caused me extreme pain after eating or drinking almost anything. For many weeks, I had to restrict my diet to a few different varieties of soup and could drink only water. Any solid foods made me feel just awful. Carbonation and acidity would literally make me feel like death, so no coffee, tea, or seltzer for me (which were basically the only three things I drank). Thankfully, I was already not often drinking alcohol, so it was easy to restrict alcohol. But I loved coffee and tea, and it was so sad that I could not take even a sip. A trip to the ER with some gloriously pain relieving IVs made me feel so much better, but the medicine I was prescribed made me so much worse. During the many hours I spent curled up in pain in bed, I landed on one of the causes of this new diagnosis - my incredibly stressful and unfulfilling job. Gastritis is not only triggered by certain foods, but also by stress (and it's just like my body to internalize stress and turn it into an ailment... that's what happened last year when stress from the brewery turned into TMJ- inflammation of the jaw). Since Western medicine was not helping me, I created my own remedies. For both my mental and now physical well-being, I quit my job, and on some recommendations of friends, I started some homeopathic supplements- probiotics, marshmallow root, and slippery elm. Slowly but surely I have been able to re-introduce foods and drinks back into my life. I still can't do carbonation, and instead of the multiple cups of coffee I used to drink every day, I have restricted myself to about half a cup a day. I limit my dairy intake, and I still stick to keto (so no carbs, sugars, etc).
It's been over two months since my first symptoms appeared, and yesterday I was finally able to enjoy a delightful cup of "Tea- Earl Grey, Hot" without any abdominal pain or discomfort. Such a simple victory to be thankful for, but here we are! My glorious cup of tea not only offers me hope that my body can heal, but (because it reminds me so much of Picard) it also gives me hope for the moral and ethical evolution of our world. I long for the almost utopian society on Earth in the Star Trek universe.
An article in the New Yorker described Star Trek as "a thought experiment on how humans would behave under terminally improved material circumstances." Specifically, the article argues that the evolved society found in Star Trek is due to the invention of the replicator! (Super cool how this blog has gone in a complete 360!) Here's a quote from the article:
"It is nothing more than a background prop, the unassuming gadget that dispenses the captain’s favorite drink (“Tea, Earl Grey, hot”). ..the replicator has fundamentally changed the moral calculus of being human. ...You simply ask for something... and it automatically produces it. With such a tool, what is the benefit of owning objects or accumulating wealth? ...Humans, once unburdened from material need, would be truly free to devote themselves to higher pursuits, like knowledge, justice, and mutual understanding."
This analysis is directly supported by Jean-Luc Picard. In TNG Season 1, Episode 25 (1988), Picard says, “People are no longer obsessed with the accumulation of things. We’ve eliminated hunger, want, the need for possessions. We’ve grown out of our infancy.”
In the movie Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Picard says even more eloquently, "The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity."
I have hope that one day we too can figure out a way to provide for people's basic needs: food, water, healthcare, medicine, and housing, so we can evolve as a society. Psychologist Abraham Maslow described this idea in his "hierarchy of needs". We have to meet basic needs (physiological and safety) before psychological needs (belonging, love, esteem) before becoming self-actualized. I like the idea of discerning my calling within these bounds. Can I help society meet some of these needs in order to aid in our evolution? I will continue to sip my delightful tea - Earl Grey, hot, and contemplate these delightful possibilities.
With delight,
♥Jamie
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