I’d like to blame Gene Roddenberry, Joss Whedon, and George Lucas for having a hard time starting this week’s blog post.  Its not that their creations were the perfect, but they certainly were iconic.  Its hard to imagine speed without counting in parsecs, to understand power other than a warp drive, or to decide a name better than Firefly.  A part of me just wants to make this post a debate between the leadership styles of Captains Reynolds, Solo, Kirk, Picard, and Janeway and call it a day.  But I’m not quite nerdy enough to do that post justice.  And I’d probably end up binge-watching DS9 instead to add details on spaceship versus space station life.

Okay, maybe I am nerdy enough…

Really when I imagine a spaceship, there is just one piece that I come back to again and again.

My favorite part of any car, plane, or train are the windows that let you watch the world passing by.  I always request the window seat when booking my plane ticket.  And during a three day train trip across the country, I spent as much time as possible in the observation car, which had windows on all sides, so you could lean back in a chair to cloud gaze.

So when I imagine a spaceship, all I really want is to be able to sit in a bay window with stars on all sides.  To see the Earth rotating slowly below me as I try to spot coastal lines or continents.  To make wishes on dozens of shooting stars, and know 100% that they are not just airplanes flying past.  To press my hand upon the glass and feel tiny in the universe.

Someone else can decide on everything else about our ship.  Just save me a spot at the window.

#52sparks is my year-long writing series based on an art prompt challenge.  The title is inspired by a quote from Star Wars: The Last Jedi: “We are the spark, that will light the fire that’ll burn the First Order down” (Poe Dameron).  The spark that lights a fire to toast a marshmallow or to ravage a forest begins in the space of an inch.  So just imagine what hundreds of inches and words can do.