Soul Of Our Space Frontier
Soul Of Our Space Frontier
Contents
A Universal Maxim
Soul of the Frontier
The Middle Child
Getting There
The Challenge
Not Quitting
Together
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There are two paths for any entity to take, whether an organic life form or otherwise:
Expansion or Decline.
One direction has an end. The other is potentially limitless.
A Universal Maxim
There are probably many universal maxims, but one of them for sure is:
Nothing Stands Still
There is no steady-state. Not one that lasts.
Expansion is the theme of Forty Suns. Specifically expansion into the next frontier, space. Humanity needs an escape hatch, and not just a place for the current crop of us to flee in an emergency. Together we need to be creating new homes and new possibilities.
Our history is filled with examples of how well we do this.
Soul of the Frontier
One recent period, the can-do spirit and camaraderie of the old American West, is a case in point.
Imagine the once-reality of the following quote from American poet, Arthur Chapman:
“Out where the handclasp’s a little stronger, out where the smile dwells a little longer, that’s where the West begins.”
Substitute ‘the West’ with ‘space’, and you get a sense of the shared frontier-spirit that can grip us.
We humans like discovery, and we like to do it together. Mister Chapman reminds us that, as we move into those vast unknowns, filled with hope, promise, it will be reassuring to know there are others with us who have our back.
The Middle Child
When it comes to acting on that spirit, it’s been pointed out that we’re the middle children of history. Born too late to explore the earth, born too early to explore the universe.
A clear dividing line exists.
And we’ve reached it.
In the same way the earth was once a wide and unknown canvas to the people who first walked out of Africa, filled with the possibility of expanding everything they knew, so too is space a wide-open frontier we’re only just beginning to understand.
Almost as if, at this moment in history, it’s less that we’re the middle children, more that we’re the crew manning the fulcrum of humanity’s future. We’re the ones resetting our eternal mandate to explore.
We, those of us alive today, sit at the cusp of a new era.
Will we do better this time?
Whether we explore the universe in our lifetime, future generations will look to us as the ones who took the first steps to make that possible. We will be the ones to cross that line, with conviction, throwing open the way to the stars.
But we’ll have to do it together.
Getting There
You don’t change many minds arguing. If any. Trust us on that.
Nor can you mandate true cooperation. Epiphanies are personal, and each of us will or won’t experience our own. Each individual must come to their own conclusion, their own decision, before taking effective action.
Yet, even though no one can mandate cooperation, cooperation is the only way we get there.
It starts with each of us.
True understanding is a personal thing. Not intellectual awareness but true, visceral understanding of what’s right and what’s wrong.
Hint: Right leads toward survival.
The Challenge
You’re unlikely to wake anyone up (here we mean make them awake to their environment, not make them “woke”), by:
Lecturing them.
Boring them.
Arguing with them.
Failing to take into account their current point of view.
Shouting.
Disguising a desired ideology.
Preaching.
Refusing to listen.
Let’s communicate more than we argue.
Let’s wake ourselves up to the tremendous possibility ahead.
People are good and want good.
Our aim should be to recognize the fact that Positive Gain can become our new, shared reality.
Failure need not be our default.
To add to that, let us point out there’s truth to that old adage:
No one ever really fails. They just quit.
Not Quitting
Tactical quitting may sometimes be necessary. Noted.
You may have to fold on a few poker hands (or many), yes, but you don’t stop playing the game. If we’re getting nowhere beating our head against the wall it may be time to quit beating our head and go look for a hammer. Or maybe build a battering ram.
Not quit the goal.
The wall is coming down.
And so, as we agree to cooperate, let’s also agree not to quit. Shared experience is one of our most important civilization drivers, so let’s get together and share space. Space Age 2.0 is here, and we’re part of it. Each of us.
Let’s see it through this time.
Together
We made it.
We arrived.
Somehow, some way, we managed to get here.
However we did it, however those before us did it, whoever stepped on whoever’s toes, whoever helped whoever, whoever hurt whoever, whoever is here as a result of the work of someone else and not their own, whoever has suffered as a result of the actions of someone else, whoever conquered whoever or whoever was conquered by whoever else ...
Dang that’s a lot of whoevers.
Point is, we’re here.
All of us.
Together.
Take a look around. We’ve said that before, but really look.
This is the crew. The people here right now.
Team Earth.
Love them or hate them, these are your compatriots. We hope you’ll start loving them. These generations, this and the next, are the ones that will get it done.
What happens next happens on our watch.
Past wrongs can be fixed, if need be, surely, but time spent dwelling on such things is time lost getting the show on the road. The past is behind us. Better to make our future. As well, spending too much time dreaming about the far future, while valuable, can also get in the way of getting things done now.
Now more than ever we need steady progress.
Maybe a handshake. Maybe a fresh acknowledgement; a little amnesty, human to human (we’re all human, after all); forgiveness for whatevers, with an understanding that better is to come. Followed by a fresh agreement to look ahead, not behind. To What Can Be, not What Was.
It’s only as complicated as we choose to make it.
We’ve all been bad to each other. That much is true. We’ve also been good to each other. For most of us, most of the time, the latter is the greater truth. Let’s remember that, then get shoulder to shoulder and push.
All of us.
Each of us.
Together.
Forward.
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Every Friday we send a recap of the week in space.
#FortySuns