Looking back, I'm not sure how William Shatner got to be my hero. I didn't grow up watching Star Trek. I still haven't seen Rescue 911, T.J. Hooker, or his episodes of The Twilight Zone.
I think it might have started when I saw a video of him singing to George Lucas. Then I watched videos of his other "musical" performances, and a friend got me a copy of his cd Has Been.
Yeah, yeah. I know. His music isn't really his most popular thing. But I love it. And something about that album got to me. Maybe it was his unique way of telling his detractors off in the title track.
Or the heart-wrenching song about losing his wife, or how very much I identified with "It Hasn't Happened Yet."
Maybe William Shatner is my hero because he can laugh at himself without wallowing in false modesty. Maybe it's because he had to wear a girdle to play Captain Kirk, or because I love a man on horseback.
But if I had to pick one thing, I think it's because he went from on top of the world to living alone in a trailer and he didn't give up.
He's stubborn, and his story helps me to be stubborn, too. Because I have to be, if I ever want to achieve my dreams.
I went to go see his live Broadway show this spring, Shatner's World: We Just Live in It. It was funny and engaging, and at its core carried a simple message. "Say yes." When life offers opportunities, William Shatner takes them. Without that life maxim, maybe he would have skipped the movie in Esperanto, but he might have missed out on a whole lot more, too.
Since the show, I've been trying harder to say yes. Yes, I can write seven short stories this month. Yes, I can push myself outside my comfort zone and work on online visibility for a magazine. Yes, I'll critique these stories for your workshop, yes, I'll write a blurb for your novella. (Yes, I will hike 34.7 miles in a single day.) Yes, I can make time for all of this.
Unless I can't, and then I just say, yes, I can forgive myself for not being perfect.
Jamie Lackey earned her BA in Creative Writing from the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. Her fiction has been accepted by over a dozen different venues, including The Living Dead 2, Daily Science Fiction, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. She reads slush for Clarkesworld Magazine and is an assistant editor at Electric Velocipede.
Learn more about Jamie Lackey on her website. Follow her on Twitter, and like her on facebook.
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