Often in the spring of the year I find myself thinking about days past spent with my F-15 pilot friends in Alaska, and when I worked at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It was a long time ago, now. And as they say seems like it all also took place in a "galaxy far, far away . . ." (to quote some of the opening lines from the first "Star Wars" movie).
Many years ago I first began the series of ruminations called "A Drink of Living Water," that were sent out by e-mail. I also started a series called "The Gospel According to Saint Baby Boomer." You may or may not remember or have had access any of those ( . . . if I didn't know you, or if I didn't know your e-mail address way back then).
Lately I have been working on some new additions to the "Saint Baby Boomer" series. Please don't take any offense at the title. I just mean it tongue-in-cheek, of course. People of each generation have their own unique perspectives and memories, music and other cultural appurtenances. As "Boomers" we have "come a long way, baby!" Some of us have grandchildren and many of us have long been part of the dreaded "Establishment" a lot of us decried against so vehemently in our salad days.
The U.S. Space Shuttle "Endeavor" and her crew are being prepared for their final voyage which is scheduled for my first grand child's fourteenth birthday, April 19, 2011. (Happy Birthday in advance, Noah!)
For a while when he was nine and ten years old, Noah and I were writing a book together called "When Noah and Grandma Kathy Went to Mars." This idea came out of bedtime stories to help Noah fall asleep. I told him that when I was his age I often had trouble falling asleep, too.
I said that I would imagine a scene from a time in history or a movie I had seen, or a story I had read. Then I would picture myself as a character in the scene and start the "movie" in my mind. A pre-dreaming exercise which never failed to work, Noah seemed intrigued by the idea. When we tried to think of a scenario to help him dream his way into sleep, I suggested space travel.
I read my first science fiction novel when I was his age that spring of 2006. Called "Time for the Stars," the book was written by Robert A. Heinlein. The premise of the book began with a question about how to prove what simultaneity is.
Set in the far distant future from the early 1960s when I read it, the story told of a private organization that was on the leading edge of all societal and technological advances. Space ships traveled at close to the speed of light in Mr. Heinlein's imagination. In addition, twins or other people who were closely-linked emotionally were helped to develop their telepathic powers.
This was done so that when the space ships had traveled beyond the distance where usual communication methods would work, the telepathic communication that Heinlein theorized was simultaneous. This form of telepathic communication between human beings--one of them still on earth and one of them on the spaceship could still be used no matter how far away the spacecraft traveled.
As Noah and I imagined the trip to Mars we would take together some day, I drew on some of my past experiences here on earth.
As you may remember, these included several times that I worked for National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) contractors. The first time began on St. Patrick's Day of 1986, not long after the tragic "Challenger" accident. Despite the draw down of the work force at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in the wake of that sad day, I was hired on to be a Security Awareness Instructor. Their philosophy was that during the time until the next Space Shuttle launch, they could catch up on some training.
I'll never forget the day that seven hearses with the recovered remains of the seven "Challenger" astronauts passed through the Space Center along the same route the vehicles that had taken them to Launch Pad 39A on that fateful day in late January. As was their custom, as many KSC employees as were able to, or felt led to, left their work places at the time for the procession. Of course it had been announced beforehand. I joined veteran employees who had watched many astronauts pass by on the way to their launches. We stood in silent tribute to the brave people who had lost their lives.
The last "Challenger" mission was STS-25 -- the twenty-fifth Space Shuttle mission. And "Endeavor's" last flight will be STS-134.
But many of us long ago ceased to pay much attention to space launches and astronauts.
Isn't it strange that such an unbelievably amazing feat as a huge aircraft being lifted into orbit with humongous amounts of scientific and various other types of cargo and up to eight people would become commonplace?
The second time I worked for a NASA contractor was in the early 1990s. Through a temporary employment agency, I ended up with a job as a secretary and word processor for a branch of Lockheed that supported the U.S. aerospace biomedical efforts. Called Lockheed for NASA Life Sciences, the flight physicians and Ph.D. scientists who worked there made many interesting contributions to all that it takes to keep people alive and healthy on the way to and from--and in orbital space. And they were actually working on the resolutions to questions concerning how to keep people safe on the Shuttle, on the International Space Station (which at the time was just beginning to be built), and on the future Mission to Mars.
No kidding.
So along with telling Noah about the science fiction story in "Time for the Stars," I described some of the interesting facts I had learned while typing press releases and material for NASA Space Biomedical publications. The physicians and scientists I toiled with had relationships with Soviet space biomedical physicians and scientists. I think it was one of very few ways that officials of the U.S. and the Soviet Union worked together in that old Cold War era.
Anyway, Noah and I had fun thinking about a trip to Mars together. I went online and showed him articles about past probes to Mars.There are photos of the first space vehicles to pass by the planet. And those that have landed on and explored the planet by remote control.
There are also drawings and articles about spacecraft and landers for the possible future missions to Mars. In case you are curious, the NASA web site is:
Noah was working on some of his own artwork to include in our book, too. We had a lot of fun thinking about traveling to Mars together. Some things are easier to do with a boy who is nine or ten than you can do with a teen.
Okay.
But what has all this got to do with "The Gospel According to Saint Baby Boomer"?
As I was thinking about the past and the future, good friends from those days who are no longer walking this earth--or flying above us in aircraft or spacecraft, either--I was reminded of the Soviet cosmonaut who gleefully reported as he orbited the Earth that he saw no sign of God up there. And I thought about the Apollo astronauts who one Christmas in the 1960s read the story of the nativity of Jesus Christ while they orbited our Moon.
Times have changed and there has been a lot more cooperation in space not only between the U.S. and Russia, but also with people of many countries around the world. And nowadays in Russia, religion and ethics are taught in schools run by the government. I am not trying to ignite a debate about that, just stating a fact.
So where have YOU found God lately?
As we reside in Lent and approach Easter, I hope you are on the lookout for signs of God's love in your life. And I hope that you don't have to go to Mars, or even into orbital space to find those indicators of God's care and presence.
As ever -- Kathy
Kathleen Ware Harris © 2012
kwharris777@gmail.com
