Confession
The spoilers for this episode made me wonder if this would be the naffest episode in Star Trek history. But I loved it. So, the sixties lounge theme was maybe spun out a little too long, so, the plot is as old as Aristophanes - but it was a beautifully crafted story. What song could be more romantically expressive for a shapeshifter than "I've got you under my skin"? And how ironic that the cold, remote, intensely private Odo, generally assumed to be utterly devoid of emotion, delivers "the most passionate kiss in the whole history of STAR TREK" - not even behind closed doors but in full view of hundreds of bystanders.
It still could have been unmitigated slush, however, without the consistently powerful performances of Auberjonois and Visitor - not simply in this episode but through six seasons of subtly shaping the nuances of Odo's character and exploring the tension and torments of his secret and seemingly unrequited love for Kira. The plot and character responses in this episode were credible, because they were consistent with all that had been delivered so effectively by Auberjonois and Visitor over the run of the series. It's become one of my favourite episodes.......anyway on to higher thoughts.....
Moments of Clarity
There are about a 100,000 Christian books on "guidance", "revelation", "call of God" and related topics.....If only, before turning themselves into spiritual knots on these matters, not to mention wasting a fortune, folk would watch this episode of DS9....
Moments of clarity are the key to effective living and fulfilled spirituality and personality. They are the moments that happen when we are being real - with ourselves, with others and with God. Moments when all the behaviours, devices and defences we adopt to hide our true self - from others, ourself and God - fall away, when all our preconceptions and prejudices are suspended and we are in a sense naked and faced with a clean sheet of possibilities.
Moments of clarity are often sought by people, whether in prayer or other ways, for a revelation of the future - about what they should do. That is missing the point completely.
Moments of clarity don't reveal what to *do* but what to *be*. By getting a glimpse of who we are, and, importantly, who we are in God, we understand what we have to become... And sometimes that can make one particular option or path more obvious for us.
For as some theologians, and anyone who has watched "The Emissary" know, for a Deity (or wormhole aliens) who live outside linear time, *being* is all, *doing* is a temporal and less significant adjunct. (Think about it - who does the God, whose name was so holy His people wouldn't utter it, say He is? - "I am". How does Jesus define himself? "I am the...." "I am the...")
Moments of clarity are about seeing things - as they are. Not how they should be, nor how we want them to be, nor what they might be like in future. But as they*truly* are. As Dax says, such moments are quite rare - maybe not as rare as twice in seven lifetimes - but certainly not a daily occurrence for most people. They come in different ways - in prayer, or doing something utterly mundane, through something you read, or hear, or see, or dream or through nothing in particular. People call these experiences different things - a revelation, a prophetic insight, an encounter with God - or a moment of clarity. You can't really anticipate them or predict when they will happen but as Dax says - when they come, you need to act on them, because confusion, doubt, apathy and a whole host of other things soon come in to cloud both the moment - and your recollection of it.
Go for it!
Does anybody have a copy of the script...?
Maybe it was because, in a Bogart-Bergman way, the actors had no idea for several seasons how the Kira - Odo relationship would turn out, they delivered such credible performances. Like real-life friendships, neither protagonist, nor actor, knew for sure where it was going.
Pressures arise in all relationships because people have differing needs in respect of knowing where "the plot" is going. Some folk want to know "the outcome" from the first page of the script. They want to know "where they stand", "whether there is a future in this" - while perhaps their partners are more comfortable with uncertainty and ambivalence. Unfortunately, life's relationships don't come with a readily-available pre-written script. The truth is we never know what a day will bring forth, and we can never really know what we, or our relationships, will become. That doesn't mean adopting a fatalistic view and stoically accepting whatever happens. Instead we need to accept there *are* things in life none of us can control, - like other people, but at the same time we should never be shy of endeavouring to reach for the stars in all our relationships.
The Dance of Human Friendship
Odo and Kira had initially a grudging friendship that had built up over a long time between two very strong but very vulnerable people, neither of whom found trust easy. The friendship had highs and lows, became much more important to one of them than the other, was stretched to breaking point by other factors. Like real-life friendships, the depth of commitment from the protagonists varied as other things happened in the rest of their lives.
Tension arises in all relationships because we rarely have the same expectations and desires of the same relationship at the same time. One friend/partner/spouse needs a sense of stronger connection and greater exclusiveness - while the other is in a place where they need more space and flexibility. Then the needs and desires shift in each person and a new tension comes in....
All relationships play out a complex dance of participants advancing and retreating, moving fast, standing still - often at different tempos. Harmony, synergy - and joy in relationships come when we get better at anticpating our partner's movements and needs and become more concerned with responding to them than doggedly pursuing our own agenda. And its not a once-for-all process: it's a day-by-day life-long or friendship-long effort - that with practice needs very little effort at all.....
