Actor, author, and of course, geeky dreamboat Captain Kirk — William Shatner can be described as many things. As he walked across our very own Chan Centre stage as part of UBC100’s What’s Next, however, “ordinary” was definitely not one of those words.
Greeted by a standing ovation, the fangirling host, Fiona Forbes, and Steve Miller Band’s “Fly Like an Eagle,” Shatner kicked off the evening by calling everyone in the audience “a little weird.”
Now before you start setting your phasers to stun, Shatner also went on to say, “You’re weird because you’re different and you’re different because you are. We are different at birth and we proceed to be even more differentiated by the time we die.” These differences were the focus of the night as he called us all special little snowflakes and speculated the future of education to be tailored to each individual.
Having been an economics major himself, he admitted to being “the worst student that ever went to McGill University,” cutting class and spending more time in the broom closet they called the drama room. Shatner found that “generalized education didn’t work at all for [him]” and his “real education” was gained from the time and effort spent where his interests lay, “not in the accounting courses that [his] business degree required.” Thus, he believes we are going to see a lot “more interdisciplinary and less disciplinary-specific programs” in the future.
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The night was filled with plenty of enlightening tidbits such as these. Instead of explaining them to you, I’ll let the crazy brilliance speak for itself:
1. “The big difference — the one that is least known — is gut flora. It sounds like one of those ladies dancing at a strip clip in Downtown Vancouver, but it isn’t. Gut flora is bacteria in us that is a close relative to a billion-year-old cyanobacteria … that likely led to early plant cells. We’re related to plants! I wonder if we’re related to marijuana!”
2. “We’re also spiritually different. People like Donald Trump believe one thing … most of us believe another.”
3. “A telephone post is sending off millions of signals everyday. Every so often, our phone rings. Why is it beyond the concept that the universe sends out signals and every so often it rings our bell? And what we think of as coincidences is the universe finding us and directing us — if we’re sensitive to that.”
4. “What is time space continuum?”
5. “Everything is on my bucket list.”
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