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Confession: I am not an engineer.
I am an artist to the core- drawing, painting, ceramics, photography- you name it and I can get lost in the process of creating. And while I am being honest- I don’t think I’ve ever had a piece of work that I have thought was “done.” Never. If it weren’t for deadlines, I think I could take a lifetime reworking, reevaluating, blending, building, tweaking and absorbing whatever work is in progress. My high school teacher used to tease me saying that I would one day sneak into galleries at night to continue to work on a piece.
Knowing that about me, then you can imagine the complete awe that I was struck with when I was able to see the Shuttle Atlantis in all of her glory at such a close distance. We were less than 24 hours from the scheduled liftoff, and I was at first taken by the beauty. I’ve always loved how graceful aircraft look; the angle of the wings, the gentle aerodynamic curves- and to see these stunningly large creatures flying in the air always makes me smile. Some of my favorite places that we have lived have been the spots closest to the airports. Catching a glimpse of an aircraft coming in or taking off was as much of a treat for me as it is for a kid catching fireflies on a summer night. These beauties, once abstract thought, were designed and built with human hands. It amazes me. To stand so close to Atlantis was completely indescribable.
There was a moment that actually surprised me; we all were to board the buses that had kindly taken us out to the launch pad for this spectacular view. 150 adults, and for some reason, getting back on the bus became a little difficult. I will chalk some of it up to the fact that we were awe-struck and it was at times a little challenging to concentrate, and some of it, I’m sure, was the fact that people were clutching onto the moment for as long as possible. I was standing with one of the NASA officials, John Yembrick, who was hosting us for the two days, and joked with him saying that “we as a human race can make that fly, but we can’t get onto a bus when asked.” I bring this up only because it was what he said afterwards that rings true and is EXACTLY what amazes me most about society; he responded with “Because that’s what you can do when you have a common goal.” YES! Everyone had their own distractions and lost sight on the fact that we needed to move as one entity for things to move swiftly.As a society, as humans in general in fact, why is it that there is so much conflict and bickering? Why do we get caught in the competitive dance that gets us no where? It is because during the contest- we have lost sight of what the common goal was. Even when we completely disagree with someone on an issue, somewhere beneath it all lies a common goal, and often we need to stop and force ourselves to remember what the goal is- not what we are getting out of it or who is winning- but what are we trying to do, and where are we trying to go?
Look at her. Take a good look at Atlantis and let yourself be amazed by her awesomeness. She is a beautiful example of what people from different walks of life, different backgrounds and religions, different political opinions, different ethnicities and different sexes can achieve when they keep their eye on the common goal. Each bolt and wire, carefully thought out and planned for- and each having an important job to the whole. She is a vessel that, for thirty years, has brought individuals from different countries to see the world without boarders; a world that doesn’t show the hostility and conflict from far above the clouds. The images of the Earth that NASA has provided to us for years are more than just beautiful photographs- but to me they represent a concept that is beautiful in it’s simplicity as well- working towards a common goal.I suppose the complexity of deciding what our common goal should be is where much of the turmoil stems from. What is heavily weighted in importance to one person, is not necessarily a priority to someone else. No matter what the goal- it can not be achieved without respect, a virtue that seems absent so often today.
If you are looking for a place to inspire you to work towards a common goal that advances more people than yourself, or that gives you more than just a good status update for the day, I encourage you to visit Fragile Oasis. It was created by Astronaut Ron Garan (currently on the ISS) and supports and promotes projects that are working towards common goals that make living on this beautiful planet a better place for those who have so little and who need so much. What can you do to help? Take a look and find out.
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Nicely put 🙂
I’ve been thinking about this very topic quite often over the past couple of months. Both with respect to identifying some of the primary obstacles to manned space exploration, and also trying to come up with some possible solutions for dealing with them. I was somewhat taken aback when I finally realized that it’s no longer a just a matter of technology, but the primary obstacle is now people (social, cultural, organizational).
Your basic conclusion is correct: We do need to cooperate on a common goal, or at least on the set of goals that we can agree on. There’s so much work to be done and there’s so much overlap in fundamental groundwork. Let’s start with the common problems, and then we can worry about specifics later. I think that if we can engage enough people on these fundamental problems, then there will be plenty of opportunities later for people to specialize on tasks specific to Moon, Mars, or wherever.
I’ve not yet published my thoughts, but a couple of close friends have listened to me wrestle with this for some time now. I only hope I can be as articulate when I finally get my thoughts sorted out.