I just finished watching the 2-part pilot episode of the science fiction series Firefly. At the end of the show, the doctor, Simon has this conversation with the captain, Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds:
Simon: I’m trying to put this as delicately as I can…how do I know you won’t kill me in my sleep?
Mal: You don’t know me very well, son, so let me put this to you plainly: If I ever kill you, you’ll be awake. You’ll be facing me. And you’ll be armed.
Simon: Are you always this sentimental?
Mal: I had a good day.
Simon: You had the Alliance on you, criminals and savages… half the people on the ship have been shot or wounded including yourself, and you’re harbouring known fugitives.
Mal: We’re still flying.
Simon: That’s not much.
Mal: It’s enough.
There’s something in Mal’s posture that speaks directly to freedom. A deep and perhaps noble American frontiersman-style freedom.
This is a very different kind of freedom from that of the decadent notion where one thinks Wow – I’m Free! I can do what I want when I want (maybe because there is wealth involved)..
It’s the freedom that comes from feeling you’ve had a good day just because “we’re still flying,” and because “it’s enough.”
So the question is this: Of what am I the captain, and to what does “we’re still flying” refer in my life? Because to the extent that I can get at these two variables, to that extent am I truly free.
Yours in success,
- Bal
