Saving the Real You

Star Trek Voyager, season 5. That's what's in my DVD player. Deb and I watched several episodes last night.

In one, Seven of Nine - a former member of the Borg but now "an individual" - is attacked by a virus of sorts that re-activates and agitates the personalities that she had helped assimilate when she was part of the collective. She becomes a Ferengi, a Klingon, a lover, a child...manifesting each personality for seconds, minutes, or hours at a time, like someone who has that form of schizophrenia. (It must have been nice for Jeri Ryan, the actress, to get to display some emotion for once.)

In a last ditch effort to save her personality from being lost or destroyed, the Vulcan chief of security, Tuvok, conducts a Vulcan "mind meld." He goes inside her head and does battle on her behalf.

"Wouldn't it be nice to have a friend like that, who could go inside your head and deal with all your enemies, silence all the voices, to rescue and protect the real you?" I asked Deb.

"Tuvok would be one I'd trust with my mind," she answered. "He wouldn't go tell everyone what he'd found!"

We didn't take the conversation any further than that, but the spiritual implications may be obvious.

When I told the members of my sabbatical support group, a few months ago, that I didn't feel ready to face down all my inner struggles, one of them prayed and "gave" me this passage from Psalm 35:

¹ Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me;
       fight against those who fight against me.
 ² Take up shield and buckler;
       arise and come to my aid.
 ³ Brandish spear and javelin
       against those who pursue me.
       Say to my soul,
       "I am your salvation."
 ⁴ May those who seek my life
       be disgraced and put to shame;
       may those who plot my ruin
       be turned back in dismay.
 ⁵ May they be like chaff before the wind,
       with the angel of the LORD driving them away.