Opus 2012-89, Movie Mantras: Live Long and Prosper

Most of us are familiar with the farewell of Mr. Spock, “Live long and prosper.”  We have learned to give the double V of the Vulcan salute.  It sounds like a great line.  Who would not want to live long and prosper?

I have been thinking of it as the Vulcan curse rather than the Vulcan salute.

Follow my thinking here.  Take another proverbial statement.  I don’t know if it was famous before Disney had Jiminy Cricket sing it but the line from his song went something like this,

“Curiosity, people say,
Killed the kitty cat one fine day.”

You may have heard it as “curiosity killed the cat.”  It is a dangerous trait.  It gets us sticking our nose in places it is not supposed to be.  It gets us sticking our nose in places it should be but in which dangerous people don’t want it.  It can get us hurt in different ways from a child putting their body parts in a flame to getting targeted by drug lords for asking the wrong questions.  It can get us fired, ostracized, and fined.  So I would submit that being curious about the world around you could keep you from living long.  So the Vulcan curse is directing you toward being a conforming dullard.  Not exactly what I want in life.

What about prosperity?  Surely no one could be against prosperity.  No, but let me ask you a question:  Under what conditions do most people grow in character and skill?  Does it happen when things are going well and life is good or is personal growth more often brought about by adversity?  In my experience it is adversity.  Maybe you are different.  Maybe you live in Disneyland.  Maybe you work for the government.

So although we all think we would like to live long and want to prosper I would suggest that we should have a few caveats to the Vulcan curse.  Live well and experience victory.

homo unius libri