My daughter tears this Knob Creek ad out of one of her latest National Geographic magazines, brings it to me and says - in a bit of a brusque tone - "Do you know what's missing from this picture, Papa?"
I Look at it, in silence for a few moments and posit an answer - "a woman?"
"See, YOU know", she says, and walks back to her bed before continuing "...and I'm going to cut out a picture of me and paste it onto this ad."
As we head further still into the great unknowns, ever reaching to touch the hem of God's garment, I am reminded of Ray Bradbury's poem "If Only We Had Taller Been", reminded that striving for knowledge is buried deep in the marrow of our bones, of our collective species history, perhaps written on the stardust traveling deep in the recesses of space and time.
I am also reminded to be humble; reminded that some things may simply be unknowable and that sometimes, sometimes simply resting peacefully in the unknowable may be enough. And yet, other times, many times, curiosity and exploration bring enlightenment.
Three cheers for Elon Musk's, Tesla's SpaceX's Falcon Heavy launch last week, for Starman taking us deeper into the great unknowns. Three cheers for knowledge, for curiosity, for science, for philosophy, for the deep interconnectedness that is.
May we continue striving to slake our thirst for knowledge and meaning and purpose while remaining humble enough to keep the insidious tendrils of conceit at bay even while it remind us to ever strive for learning and knowledge, for wisdom in how and when to exercise them, for reaching for the stars while yet being fully present in the here and now, grateful for what is.
Onward.
~~~~~~~~~
"If Only We Had Taller Been"
~Ray Bradbury 1920-2012
The fence we walked between the years
Did balance us serene
It was a place half in the sky where
In the green of leaf and promising of peach
We'd reach our hands to touch and almost touch the sky
If we could reach and touch, we said,
'Twould teach us, not to, never to, be dead
We ached and almost touched that stuff;
Our reach was never quite enough.
If only we had taller been
And touched God's cuff, His hem,
We would not have to go with them
Who've gone before,
Who, short as us, stood as they could stand
And hoped by stretching tall that they might keep their land
Their home, their hearth, their flesh and soul.
But they, like us, were standing in a hole
O, Thomas, will a Race one day stand really tall
Across the Void, across the Universe and all?
And, measured out with rocket fire,
At last put Adam's finger forth
As on the Sistine Ceiling,
And God's hand come down the other way
To measure man and find him Good
And Gift him with Forever's Day?
I work for that
Short man, Large dream
I send my rockets forth between my ears
Hoping an inch of Good is worth a pound of years
Aching to hear a voice cry back along the universal mall:
We've reached Alpha Centauri!
We're tall, O God, we're tall!
Watch a video of a tribute to the New Horizons mission set to Ray Bradbury reading his poem - it is remarkable:
