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Thursday, July 25, 2019

The Monster, or the Friendly Angel

I am turning into a monster. A scaly, red-skinned monster. An irritable, itchy, lobster-like monster. You will find me sitting on a heap of ashes, scraping my wounds with a potsherd. And I always thought of myself as such a nice guy, not a monster. Nonetheless, I have done some monstrous things in my time, things for which I was regretful then and am still regretful now. Perhaps my evils are coming home to roost and my very skin must pay penance. Maybe I have merely played the role of a nice guy.

Funny how one can associate so many ideas with episodes of the original Star Trek television show. It often happens to me, anyway. I am reminded of an episode that I actually barely remember. I recall that there was a sort of ghost that had befriended children marooned for some reason on a deserted planet. The ghost presented himself as kindly and caring. He became the children's friend. They may have called him "the friend", or something like that. I can't remember. Anyway, these children were discovered by the Enterprise crew and brought back to the starship to be returned to parents or relatives or something. It was soon revealed, however, that this ghost was not friendly at all. He was an evil demon masquerading as a kindly savior. He had gained the children's absolute faith by nurturing them when they were lost, and now he meant to use them for his own evil purposes.

Naturally, Captain Kirk ultimately faces down the ghost, trapping him with sly cross examination and the sword, or the fazer, of truth, at which point the ghost sheds his illusory skin, the figure the children had come to love--the nice guy--and appears as he truly is, a frightening mass of oozing sores and ulcerations. Not a nice guy at all. 

Am I now shedding my own skin of illusion? Am I seeing myself as I really am and always have been? And if that is so, why do dogs love me so much? Lol. That's my only defense. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Melvin Belli Gorgan the Friendly Angel

R.W. Boughton said...

Ah yes, thank you, Anon.