Voyager: Relativity

Tonight I unpacked our books. Before we left Kentucky, we boxed up our books (about 1500) and stored them with a family member. Three years went by and she sent them a box at a time until, little by little, we had most of them back. In our old apartment (the one I was in when this blog started) I unpacked them and put them into our second (third?) hand shelves. When we moved to our last apartment, we ordered brand new shelves for our books but as soon as we got there we realized how terrible the place was. Thus, we left everything (including the shelves) boxed up. Finally tonight, in our new place, I finished our shelves, anchored them, unpacked and shelved our books.

While doing all this, I watched a few episodes of Voyager including "Relativity." In this one Seven goes back through Voyager's past in an attempt to thwart/prevent its sabotage and destruction. She re-visits her friends' and her own timeline in a criss-crossing time adventure with a pretty surprising finish.

Strange as it seems, I felt like my activities were pretty similar to Seven's. Our books are like tokens from our own timelines and unpacking them I couldn't help but remember various parts of my life.

There's a book that my godmother gave me when I graduated high school--it's a reprint of one of her own books, one that I pored over every single time I visited her. I found my great grandmother's Shakespeare's Collected Works, which I inherited when I was seventeen. I found Flower Faeries of the Trees, which my mother read to me when I was little and gave to me when I got married.

Taken before I was too tired and delirious to worry about pictures.
Or standing. Or thinking.

I found my husband's Twilight Zone Companion, which we went through the first time I went to his apartment. I found his Star Trek books (obviously) and his (rather vast) collection of magic and magic history books (have I mentioned I'm married to a wizard?) and smiled when I heaved the Calvin and Hobbes complete set (I got it for his last birthday) onto the shelf.

I love my kindle. It makes me feel like I'm in Starfleet and I love that I have over fifty books in one compact place. But I'll never be able to unpack my kindle books, spread them out on the floor, smile as I put them on the shelf, and relive the times and places I was as I read them the first time.

Occasionally I'll see Janeway or Picard reading an actual book with actual pages and I'll shout at the TV, "You fool! Even I have a kindle! Why are you reading paper like a chump?!" But after tonight, maybe I get it.