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Leonard Nimoy's Passing

3/2/2015

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Leonard Nimoy’s passing was news that rocked me even from halfway around the world. 
Not only did I grow up loving Star Trek, but I also appreciated his particular skill for 
presenting a character who was at once both coldly logical and eminently relatable. 
Nimoy’s signature alter-ego came to define him as an actor, and in a large sense was his 
greatest contribution to cinema and society. It’s interesting to note that he resisted the 
role so forcefully upon initially being offered it, and after the cancellation of the show 
spent the next ten years or so trying to distance himself from that iconic performance. 
I guess in some sense we all struggle with the same fear, that we’ll be defined by one 
particular trait or achievement for the rest of our lives.

The idea that a perfect stranger could evoke such a visceral emotional response from 
me upon news of his passing is a testament to the fact that his work had a palpable and 
lasting impact. We all long to have such significance in life, and yet like the reluctant 
Nimoy, some of us fail to recognize that our insecurities about a particular aspect of our 
lives may be the one great barrier to achieving the significance we all so desperately 
crave. Had he listened to his inner worries and turned down the role, we may never 
have remembered the quirky sci-fi series which has now etched itself permanently on 
our cultural memory. Though the show was certainly an intellectually stimulating and 
well-acted innovation on the part of the whole cast, the ensemble would have been 
sorely lacking had it not been for one man’s contribution. A team may only be as good 
as its weakest link, but when good links come together around a solid anchor, the chain 
it forms will be virtually immovable. Though he wasn’t the leading man of the show, 
Nimoy’s presence (and even his physical stillness in performance) provided a secure 
anchor around which the other characters were free to oscillate wildly for dramatic effect.

The lessons I derive from Nimoy’s life and performance are twofold: One, embrace 
your identity. You may think that your quirks or your individual mannerisms might 
preclude you from doing certain things. Nimoy may have thought initially that he was 
too “dignified” or “serious” as an actor to take on the role of a funny-looking alien. 
Yet it was that very dignity and gravity which made that alien so singularly memorable 
among fiction characters, and even gave a wild and tumultuous 1960s culture someone 
to emulate who could operate solely on logic while the world around him was a storm of 
emotion.

Second, don’t take your contribution lightly. While an actor naturally assumes that his 
work will be used for entertainment purposes, most good actors approach their craft 
from a far more philosophical frame of mind. If Nimoy had assumed that this low-budget show was going to be a quick way to pay his bills before moving on to bigger and 
better, he never would have devoted the time and discipline necessary to create such a 
well-developed persona who ultimately inspired Gene Rodenberry to use the character 
as a metaphor for the deep psychological war that rages inside every man and woman 
on earth, which is the battle between head and heart, between left and right, between 
love and hate. Spock was more than just a foil to the callow and jovial Kirk, he was a 
metaphor for the duality of man; a proposal that without emotion, logic is cruel, and that 
without logic, emotion is an unbridled storm. Spock was ultimately far more than a TV 
character, he was a philosophical principle, and Nimoy saw that implicitly when he took 
the role.

My point in all of this is that God has given each of us a part to play in life. By playing 
this part to the utmost of our abilities we will come to the fullest expression of ourselves 
as God designed us to be. Let us not be, as Shakespeare once wrote, “a poor player 
who struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more.” Let us boldly
wear the face which God gave us, and commit the fullness of our skills and talents to 
the execution of the role which he gave us to play. “Before I formed you in the womb,” 
declares the Lord to Jeremiah, “I knew you. Before you were born I set you apart and 
appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
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    I'm J.R., a US Navy veteran and Linguist. This blog is devoted to insights and experiences I've gained over the years.

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