I’ve not seen “The Martian.” People told me the book was even better — and the audio book really well performed. So I listened (it was!), consuming the last four hours in two, at double speed, and realized The Martian is Robinson Crusoe three centuries later. All alone, stranded not on an island but a planet. Salvaging tools and supplies from his wreck. Surviving through ingenuity.
And then that flight home!
When I was five or six, I had a 78 rpm record of the first moon landing. I played it over and over. Something went wrong on the return trip. They were not going to make it. Too heavy. But then the boy on the flight — there was a boy on the flight — came up with a solution for lightening the space ship and saved the day. They made it home! I listened to that record 100 times.
All that, pre-Sputnik.
And here we are. We’ve been to the moon. (Just 60 years after the Wright brothers made their first 12-second flight!) And it seems pretty clear we’re going to Mars.
What a time to be alive. How important that we elect truly thoughtful leaders . . . who “believe in” science . . . and not just someone we’d like to have a beer with.
Have a great weekend.
