Glimmers
July 8, 2011; the final voyage of the starship Atlantis.
Imagine that line being read by William Shatner. Imagine a truck with a cramped cab and a massive cargo trailer attached to three huge, powerful rockets and you have our beloved Space Shuttle. And today was the last one. The very last one. It is hard to imagine that.
When the first Shuttle went up on April 12, 1981, I was newly married and working as associate pastor of a church in Sanford, FL. Officially dubbed STS 1, I watched from the church parking lot as Columbia hurtled toward space. Even from that distance, it was quite impressive.
The Challenger disaster is one of those "I remember where I was when it happened" moments, like the Kennedy assassination or 9/11. We were living in Selmer, TN at the time. I was the pastor of a small church and was working as a substitute teacher at the middle school that day. All school work stopped. People sat stunned in their seats. Here in Central Florida, the grief was deeper, I’m told. The atmosphere turned from celebration to horror, and then to mourning in a matter of seconds. Here monuments to the crew remain to remind us. There are schools named after crew members McNair and McAuliffe and for the vehicle itself. Here we live surrounded by the history of Space.
I know people who were charged with going to Texas to search for pieces of Columbia in the aftermath of its breakup during re-entry in on October 15, 2003. For some the impact was akin to the PTSD that soldiers experience after combat. And yet the program endured.
With the exception of those two missions, the Shuttle has been remarkably successful. Because of the Shuttle program, we have the international space station and the Hubble telescope. And we also have microchips and MRI machines, artificial hearts and smoke detectors, LED lights and digital mammography, Mylar balloons and Kevlar vests, microwave ovens and cell phones, sports domes and football helmets. These are a few of the thousands of inventions and advancements that owe their existence to the program.
Atlantis is STS 135. 134 times we have witnessed this marvel climb into the skies, clouded in steamy vapor and shaking the earth as the sound reverberated outward from the launch pad. 132 times twin sonic booms have announced the successful completion of the assigned mission. And now we wait for it just once more.
We will miss you indeed.
Jerald
Showing posts with label Space Shuttle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Space Shuttle. Show all posts
Monday, July 11, 2011
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Stress allergies
Glimmers
April 27, 2010
April has turned out to be an interesting month. It has a number of things to commend it this year. It is Holocaust Month, Poetry Month, Jazz Appreciation Month and Be Vigilant Against Child Abuse Month. I vote we add “I’m Sick of Pollen Month” to the list.
As I was mowing the grass in the front yard a couple of weeks ago, along the edge of the driveway where it meets the street, the mower stirred up a suffocating yellow cloud from the oak pollen droppings that had covered the grass like a blanket of yellow-brown snow. My throat tightened, my nose began to run and it felt like I had gravel in the corners of my eyes.
The pollen season in Florida, and in much of the rest of the country, has been an especially tough one this year. Speculation is that it could be related to the much colder than normal winter we experienced. Whatever the reason, it has produced some unusual sights and sensations.
Last week, as it finally appeared to be ending, I shoveled up the oak pollen droppings I had blown into the street from my driveway and filled two 30-gallon garbage cans. You read that correctly. I shoveled POLLEN. And I wasn’t the only one. My neighbors, some clad in breathing masks and goggles, were doing the same thing. Another year like this and the city will need to acquire some Pollen Plows to clear the streets. I’ve never seen anything like it.
I am normally not affected too much by pollen season. I don’t have much of a problem with allergies. But I discovered that such an overwhelming dose of pollen could cause even the non-allergic to suffer.
April, in addition to the designations above, is also National Stress Awareness Month. Stress is a given in life. It always has been. And like pollen season, most of us cope with the normal levels of stress quite well with no ill effects. But sometimes, when the right environmental factors converge, a stress outbreak can overwhelm our coping mechanisms. It seems to me that this is one of those seasons for our community. On top of the normal stressors of life, we have the uncertainty of the Space Center’s future, the health care reform bill that recently passed, and the ongoing recession. How is it affecting you? How are you coping with it? Shovels may be good for an overwhelming outbreak of pollen, but dealing with stress requires other tools.
I think faith is certainly the first and most effective tool for stress. Scripture invites us to cast all our cares, our anxieties and stressors, onto the Lord because God cares for us (I Pet. 5:7). Start there. It may prevent you from doing some less productive things with your shovel.
Blessings to you all,
Jerald
April 27, 2010
April has turned out to be an interesting month. It has a number of things to commend it this year. It is Holocaust Month, Poetry Month, Jazz Appreciation Month and Be Vigilant Against Child Abuse Month. I vote we add “I’m Sick of Pollen Month” to the list.
As I was mowing the grass in the front yard a couple of weeks ago, along the edge of the driveway where it meets the street, the mower stirred up a suffocating yellow cloud from the oak pollen droppings that had covered the grass like a blanket of yellow-brown snow. My throat tightened, my nose began to run and it felt like I had gravel in the corners of my eyes.
The pollen season in Florida, and in much of the rest of the country, has been an especially tough one this year. Speculation is that it could be related to the much colder than normal winter we experienced. Whatever the reason, it has produced some unusual sights and sensations.
Last week, as it finally appeared to be ending, I shoveled up the oak pollen droppings I had blown into the street from my driveway and filled two 30-gallon garbage cans. You read that correctly. I shoveled POLLEN. And I wasn’t the only one. My neighbors, some clad in breathing masks and goggles, were doing the same thing. Another year like this and the city will need to acquire some Pollen Plows to clear the streets. I’ve never seen anything like it.
I am normally not affected too much by pollen season. I don’t have much of a problem with allergies. But I discovered that such an overwhelming dose of pollen could cause even the non-allergic to suffer.
April, in addition to the designations above, is also National Stress Awareness Month. Stress is a given in life. It always has been. And like pollen season, most of us cope with the normal levels of stress quite well with no ill effects. But sometimes, when the right environmental factors converge, a stress outbreak can overwhelm our coping mechanisms. It seems to me that this is one of those seasons for our community. On top of the normal stressors of life, we have the uncertainty of the Space Center’s future, the health care reform bill that recently passed, and the ongoing recession. How is it affecting you? How are you coping with it? Shovels may be good for an overwhelming outbreak of pollen, but dealing with stress requires other tools.
I think faith is certainly the first and most effective tool for stress. Scripture invites us to cast all our cares, our anxieties and stressors, onto the Lord because God cares for us (I Pet. 5:7). Start there. It may prevent you from doing some less productive things with your shovel.
Blessings to you all,
Jerald
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)