Mother’s day again . . . and always something there to remind me.  The new STAR TREK flick is something really grand, ingenious and entertaining . . . but the surprise, as I mourn and celebrate my mom, is that the central theme of the film revolves around losing one’s family, and seeing your mother perish right before your horrified eyes.  Then, later, you lose your mind as everyone around you backs away slowly, your enemies conspire, and your girlfriend has no idea what to do for you.  This is Spock's character arc in the film---and it blows me away that the film is so insightful.  One of the most amazing scenes is when Kirk is forced to needle Spock about the loss of his mom until the anger that even a pure Vulcan must feel in the face of losing everything boils to the surface and emerges as something primal, something raw, something that destroys even the most noble of us.  I am sharing this with all of you on Mother’s Day, after seeing the film again in honor of my dear, lost LeAnne, who was taken from me suddenly, without warning, on the eve of my greatest achievement as a professional artist.  She will never see the film I made.  She will never see the books I’ve written.  She will never see the paintings I’ve painted.  And even now, four years later, it is the passion that stirs my Vulcan blood like nothing else I have ever known.  I’m no Trekkie or Trekker or whatever the hell those nimrods call themselves, but when something cosmic and ironic like this happens---something deeply profound that speaks directly to me and to all of you out there who share a similar dispair---it’s enough to make you believe in something like God for a few seconds.

It’s also enough to make you believe in something better.  Something good.  Something that exists to bind our souls in the darkest hours, and in the moment of greatest triumph.

Happy Mother’s Day, all.

This is the first one I’ve had in four years that I didn’t feel like crying through.

And that’s important.

May the Force be with you.

STEPHEN