Such a great quote. I agree completely.
I found a fairly recent survey on the internet listing the top 25 answers to that age old question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I was pleasantly surprised to find that Astronaut and Scientist still made the top 10. I thought for sure those choices would have been bumped off the list completely by options like you-tuber, podcaster, social influencer, pop-star, and pro-athlete. I guess we can partially thank projects like SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin for re-sparking interest in space travel. Even if Bill Gates thinks Elon Musk is mad for not fixing the Earth first, he seems pretty determined to make it to Mars. And why not? Personally, I think that if even a tenth of all the time, energy and resources that is sunk into entertainment like movies and social media were directed to scientific endeavors both mega billionaires would attain their goals.
Don’t get me wrong. I love a good movie and I’d be a big fat liar if I said I’ve never found myself scrolling for way too long on Facebook or Instagram. But even then, I’m drawn to the techie stuff, real or theoretical, science fiction and space travel (with a few side quests of cute puppy and jumping spider videos of course) I grew up loving the classic V-2 style rocketships in Bugs Bunny cartoons and watching Kirk and Spock outsmart aliens in space. Later, I read noodle bending science fiction from authors such as Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert, Larry Niven and A.E.van Vogt… now considered classics. I still love a good story that includes plausible theories of relativity, folding space, terraforming or alien ecology. My hubby is way more of a hard-core science nerd than I am, preferring the actual history of space flight complete with a degree in Aerospace Engineering. Yep, I married a rocket scientist. That said, his fave rocketships are also the sleek, bullet shaped and completely improbable ones for landing that you find in Tintin comics and 1950’s movies. So, I may not be able to do rocket science, but I do love rocket-ships and have made a rocket mitten pattern that you and your favorite Spaceman Spiff will love to infinity and back again.
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