Why a scene from Star Trek made me cry: It’s all about mothers!

OK, I’m weird this way… I cry not just at sad stuff, but at things that make me overwhelmingly joyful, and things that are powerful or profound. When I see a beautiful Christmas flashmob singing to the glory of God in a crowded suburban shopping mall, I tear up. I was speaking at a corporate event in the healthcare field yesterday, and found my eyes watering when the event organizer played this youtube video for Cleveland Clinic for the group as a reminder of why they are doing what they are doing.

So yes, admittedly, I’ve got an overabundance of emotion apparently fighting to get out. But even so, I was surprised to find myself tearing up at an action scene when I was re-watching the new Star Trek movies recently.

[SPOILER ALERT] I grew up in a total Trekkie household, and I love the new movies too. For those who have seen the movies, you know that in the new, altered timeline, a crazy Romulan destroys Spock’s home planet of Vulcan, killing Spock’s beloved mother in the process. Although Spock is always outwardly non-emotional, the viewer can tell that he’s shaken but trying to stuff down his emotions.

Until the fight scene where I started crying.

Kirk has to get Spock to show that he’s emotionally compromised, so he (Kirk) can take command. And to provoke him, he starts taunting Spock pretty cruelly, asking things like, ‘What must it be like to feel nothing, not hurt nor love…’ and then he gets in Spock’s face, and says, about Spock’s mom, “You never loved her!”

And Spock flips. He flies into an anguished rage and starts beating Kirk senseless.

And yes, this was where I found my eyes welling up with tears. There was something so powerful about the love this son had for his mom…. no matter how he tried to stuff it… and how a furious desire to defend his mother just burst out of him in righteous anger…even though he knew he would have to give up command as a result.

I saw this grown-up man defending his mother– and I saw an echo of what most men feel for their moms. No matter how they try to act cool and unmoved on the outside, there is something so special about their love for the ones who first held and loved and nurtured them as a woman should.

I saw this grown-up man defending his mother –and I felt my 11 year old son stir beside me on the couch. My 5th grader who is looking more and more like a young man every day, instead of a little boy. My mind flashed back to that morning where, out of the blue, he had come into where I was intently working at my computer, and put his arms around me and said “I love you, Mom.”

And that is when I started to having to wipe away the tears. At which point, my son leaned over and put his head on my shoulder.

Let the tears flow.

Happy Mother’s Day, to all the moms out there. May you find yourselves tearing up with beautiful moments this year, too.