Reaching for the Moon
John F. Kennedy said, “…We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept…”
I wasn’t alive then, but those words have always meant something to me. For me these words mean that despite how hard something seems, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it. That no matter how impossible something seems, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. For me those words have always meant that we should dream and dream big.
Flash forward almost 55 years and here we are, in a world that no one back than could have dreamed possible. We’ve been to the Moon, we have a permanent space station in low Earth’s orbit. We’ve sent any number of machines out into the universe. There are men and women planning on going to Mars (okay, that is a bit farther out, but still NASA is planning a trip as are Mar’s One and Space X). We want to mine an asteroid. We want to have a permanent presence on the Moon. We’re in the process of opening up space exploration to private companies such as Bigelow Aerospace, Sierra Nevada Corporation and Space X. These are big dreams with big dreamers behind them.
Why we need to celebrate these dreams is because these dreams spawn conversation, and these conversations spawn action, and these actions create change (mostly for the better). Not all these dreamers will see their dreams come true, but some will. Those dreams that do come true will spawn new dreams and so on.
Without these big dreams we would have never had flight, never had computers, never had cell phones, or any number of everyday items we take for granted.
As a writer, I’m a dreamer, I suppose if I did better in math and science I could have been one of these dreamers creating our future, but instead, I tell stories. Stories that maybe, if I’m lucky, someday will inspire future dreamers and if I’m really lucky, possibly I’ll be writing them from my new home on the Moon, or perhaps Mars. I do it not because it’s easy but because it’s a challenge I’m willing to accept.
What are your dreams? How are you celebrating them, and the dreamers around you?