by OL » Mon Mar 02, 2015 1:28 am
It's sad when any icon dies, but I can't say this is one I'm all too broken up about. He was 83. It was just kinda... his time. Good on him for sticking around so long though. I have to imagine he was the type that saw it coming and was okay with it because he'd lived a full life... and there really isn't any better way to go than that.
The only part that bums me out just a little is all the "live long and prosper" quotes I inevitably ended up seeing everywhere he was mentioned. And I mean everywhere. Somehow seeing a human being equated solely to a single fictional character he played 50 years ago is kind of a depressing thought. Actually, seeing any human being reduced to one singular aspect of their history is a bit of a bummer all around. Granted, it's likely that few of us know anything about the rest of his life anyway, but it's a depressing thought to me regardless. I don't remember it myself, but I bet there was a lot of "He's dead, Jim," when DeForest Kelley died.
I guess that's just the risk of being an icon though; being remembered in two dimensions rather than three.