FIREFLY AND SERENITY

A friend came in the door one day not long ago and presented us with his little treasure trove of DVD's---the entire series, plus the movie, all unexpected and more delicious for the surprise.

He simply said, "You'll LOVE this," and left it at that. We had spoken of "Firefly" a visit or two ago, and I had mentioned that brides on a wedding site had planned whole ceremonies, attire, receptions, honeymoons around the theme, from dustymud costumes to dialogue incorporated into the vows.

And we DID. We loved it. Chris and I spent five mesmerizing evenings aloft in that battlescarred old freighter made of tinkertoys and bolts, when not plummeting to ground in evasive maneuvers and actual crashings. The travels were adventurous, the people fun and mysterious and crabby and poignant and heroic by turns, the clothing and the language of another time far ago in our own world.

We were just carried away into the skies of the THEN and the THERE, friend to these remarkable people, enjoying their banter and their quirks, their dependence on each other and their fierce defense of their own territories and of each other. The battles and flights and odd worlds and villains and heroes were all exciting, but still peripheral to the moments around the communal table, the togetherness, the talk and the nourishment of bodies and souls in that one spot of illumination midst all the dark surrounds. They sat and ate, laughed and teased, toasted and remembered, insulated from all the cold dark in that one warm golden place lit by primitive means, holding all they could call their own.

They were a family, with branches so oddly different and yet so kin, tasting the hard-gained food, gaining strength from each other. The little decorations round the walls, the rough-hewn table, the dim recesses of the room blocked out by the lamplight---that was home for a time, and was warmth and light and kinship.

The acceptance of companions, of the make-do of the food, of the circumstances--those are the origins and the reinforcements of the unity and the loyalty which our NOW-world could stand to emulate. Shelter and food and companions---those have been the Grail sought by countless generations since we huddled over cave-fires. Clothing those blessings in elegance and luxury, in exotic tastes and savors, in boundless travels and abundance--that's available today.

Seeing the same necessities projected far into a future we won't inhabit, one that's still filled with so much seeking for the Good and the Right and the Beautiful---that's a wonderful thing to imagine and a bright legacy to hope for.