Column: A conversation with a generational hero in Altadena ...Middle East

So, of course they tell you not to meet your heroes. Joseph Campbell was not a very kind man, my lit professor Len Franco mournfully revealed to his room full of students at Pasadena City College. We sat agape: Do we then still follow our bliss? Embark on our own heroic journey?

Roald Dahl, I hear told, was “an absolute sod,” according to critic Kathryn Hughes. But as the writer Maria Popova opines, “in the end, our dealings as readers aren’t with authors, all of whom are flawed human beings, but with their books.”

Dahl and his Danny the Champion of the World and his Charlie in that Chocolate Factory, they will always be a force for good in children’s literature.

That said, meeting LeVar Burton one sunny morning in Altadena did not disappoint.

I do remember watching the soul-searing miniseries “Roots” in 1977. I was 8, and we watched the eight-night saga as a family. All the knowledge I’d had about slavery until then were from books, from “Huckleberry Finn” and “Little House on the Prairie.”

Burton’s performance as Kunte Kinte in Alex Haley’s epic was fierce and unforgettable.

Then, of course, here is Burton as Geordi LaForge, the blind Starfleet officer in seven seasons of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” the weekly show the husband and I watched together with no fail while we were still dating. Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Geordi and company are as familiar to us today as ever (yes, we are on a first-name basis.)

By the time my children got to know Burton as the cheerful host of the PBS show “Reading Rainbow,” Burton was part of the media canon of our young family, as beloved as The Wiggles, Dan Zanes and Thomas the Tank Engine.

Our conversation, of course, began with that appreciation, how Burton’s lifelong work and story bolsters my own. He hadn’t been back in the Altadena area since serving as the 133rd Rose Parade’s grand marshal, when he had to sprint after the parade car — he was running late. Memories of that day still count pretty high on his happiest-days-of-his-life list.

Being part of the “Star Trek” universe, he said, was an honor, to be included in creator Gene Rodenberry’s vision of the future.

“‘Star Trek’ represented a world I wanted to live in,” Burton said. “To grow up and be part of that storytelling, I’m grateful for that.”

Coming to town to read his book “The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm,” written with Susan Schaefer Bernardo, was his way of helping, not only the Altadena Library, but all the children and families enduring the aftermath of the Eaton Fire.

Burton wrote that book with his daughter in mind, and now he has a granddaughter he’s shared it with, too.

“We all go through different events and trying times,” he said. “We do get through them mostly through the help of others. None of us gets through this life alone. Part of being human is leaning on the kindness and strength of others around us.”

Burton is working on a memoir these days, which is bringing back the joy of reading to the author and actor and director.

Books help and books matter, Burton said. So do writers and writing and libraries and librarians. It was a thrill to exchange stories with this good and great Californian. Stories get us through a lot.

Sangita Patel, co-founder and CEO of LeVar Burton Entertainment, has known Burton for 15 years.

“He is the most genuine and authentic person you’ll ever meet. He is true to what he is on TV,” she said. “There is no better person.”

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