I remember i once posted a blog about emotions. Now come to think of it, there were times where I had to face the bad side of emotions. Recent days were tough…almost everyday I face the pain of many kinds of suffering, mostly the emotional kind. Loneliness, pressure, sadness, anxiety…you name them. Well, there is nothing much I can do…but to say that ‘the pain will not just go away’…it is still here, roaming around me…
After many months of watching the Sci-Fi Star Trek - Enterprise, i was quite impressed by how they moulded the Vulcan character, more specificly T’pol, to those who have also watched it. They have given the character a whole new breeze of mysteries for the viewers to ponder on. At first, new viewers will be introduced to the Vulcan character as the Humanoid species that "doens’t feel anything" or "emotionless beings", but with the extra "LOGIC". This unique glow of the character caused me many times to ponder, and imagine how is it like to be a Vulcan. In other words, how my life will be like if it is to be ruled by logic, not by emotions and what kind of a person will I be if my mindset is not affected by joy, anxiety or any other kind of emotions. The task was not easy mainly because I am not a Vulcan but a Human being. Humans have emotions and they depend on God to use them (emotions) for our survival. I am Human, therefore I am what God has made me.
Later on the series, as T’pol works with Humans aboard the Human Starship Enterprise, her natural curiosity and sometimes admiration (in my opinion) on how humans are able to live with these emotions had slowly brought up the emotions suppressed in her to the surface. Here the viewers are gradually filled in with the truth about the history of Vulcans that the Vulcans were actually a hostile spesies, overwhelmed by emotions (mostly anger) and were unable to control them. Consequently, the Vulcan race became a mess and had come very close to annihilate themselves through their own actions. To overcome this, the Vulcans have devised a way to suppress their emotions so that they will actually have none and will not be in any way affected by emotions (actually the whole story is very complicated, which involves ‘Surak’, their so called ‘greatest leader’ whos teachings include many principles that helped the Vulcans to save themselves, and most importantly save what is left of the Vulcan race and teach them to understand what it is to be Vulcan). It worked quite well to some extent and annihilation was not to happen (Although their emotions are kept suppressed, there is a myth that a great number of Vulcans interpreted Surak’s teachings incorrectly, and these led to many restriction and rules that created lies, underestimation and deceit, in other words, the Vulcans succeded in suppressing their emotions, but failed to learn how to be a true Vulcan, ironic isn’t it? There is however a small group called the ‘Syrrannites’ who claim that they are practising the true teachings of Surak, and that one of them contain the ‘Katra’ - sort of a memory - of Surak). Life after that for the Vulcans is therefore guided and ruled by logic. Not only that, their lifes will be packed with rituals and meditations to make sure the emotions are kept suppressed inside them. For T’pol, as her emotions gradually rise up to the surface, unusual for a Vulcan, she became addicted to it. She injected small amounts of Trellium-D, a sci-fi element known to have the ability to stir up emotions, into her bloodstream. As time goes on, her usual ability and methods of meditations to keep her emotions suppressed became weak and gradually useless. The emotions she became ‘addicted’ to had turned into one of her worst nightmares, affecting her in many ways and areas of her life aboard the ship.
Knowing that life would not be easy anymore, T’pol has to learn how to live with these emotions and deal with them in order to survive. And the good news is that she succeeded in finding the ideal balance between her emotions and logic, teaching her how to actually deal with problems hand to hand and not run away from them.
What I am trying to imply is that we should not run away from our emotions although how bad and cruel they may seem to be. Be courageous, deal with them and learn from them. I do not know whether my analogy up there about the Vulcans had at all any connection with my previous blog about emotions, if not then just treat it as a little something about the Vulcan character la…hehehe…