Today, I am Sad

30 Oct, 2026

He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.¹

I found out yesterday that Sir Patrick Stewart passed away this week, reportedly after a brief battle with Alzheimer's Disease and Lewy Body Dementia.²

I am not normally one who is actually upset by the passing of celebrities. Death, after all, is inevitable. And I could fill hundreds of pages with my thoughts about the subject of death itself, and the way that America culturally reacts to death, but that's not for here and it's certainly not for now.

Typically, when I read the news of a celebrity's passing, I react with polite interest and the occasional brief passing feeling of "oh, too bad, they were lovely" if it was someone that I genuinely believed that of. I was disappointed when I heard that Dolly Parton had passed, but Dolly Parton was never a big part of my life. I enjoyed her music on occasion, and I knew very well that she was one of the most prolific philanthropists of our time, and a genuinely good person to boot, but her passing didn't effect me in the way that it certainly did other people for whom she was a much more influential figure.

For me, Sir Patrick Stewart was an influential figure. My father and I almost never saw eye to eye about anything, but the one thing that he and I always bonded about was Star Trek, specifically The Next Generation. The beauty of the Star Trek universe is that it imagines a time when humanity has come together, in the wake of near total societal collapse, and said "We will do better. We will BE better." And then actually DID.

The "deep lore" of Star Trek being what it is, the fact that Star Trek looks forward to the future with hope, with the idea that we can unite as a human species for the betterment not only of our own planet, but the betterment of all planets is the greatest gift that I could ask for in this moment. The idea that we, despite our darker nature, our worse angels, can rise above the cruelty and the caprice and create a society that is beyond need, beyond despair, and in doing so look to the stars and explore is revolutionary in of itself. The central thesis of Star Trek, as far as I am concerned, boils down to the idea that Man need not be a wolf to Man.

And for me, Sir Patrick Stewart was the embodiment of that message. His portrayal of Captain Picard showed me what a leader could be -- not one that leads by strength alone, or by cunning, or by fear, but by dignity and commitment to the greater good. My love of history was surely influenced by the fact that Captain Picard, a stalwart adventurer and scientist, was also deeply committed to learning about the past and the ways that the past shaped the present, and therefore the future. Picard's consistent effort to protect his crew, to protect the Federation, and to protect the dignity of all life, and to do so in a way filled with gravitas and Shakespeare quotes, not just conducted at the end of a phaser, gave hope to a pudgy nerdy little kid that had a hard time understanding his peers, let alone fitting in with them.

And Sir Patrick Stewart wasn't just a phenomenal actor, he was a phenomenal person. An avowed socialist, feminist, and humanist, Sir Patrick embodied so many of the virtues which I aspire to every day, and committed himself to working towards and supporting those causes.

So yeah, finding out that Sir Patrick Stewart passed away this week is probably the first time I have actually felt sad about the death of a celebrity. Maybe someday when I die, people will look back fondly on me and say that I also lived my life well. With any luck, I'll have a long while to prove them right.

“I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment, because it will never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we've lived.”³