8/27/07

"The literary community is short-sighted. They don't realize that by leaving the atmosphere, you can see more," I told one of my peers at lunch today. He had only just related an anecdote of how he had been laughed at for choosing to write an essay about the necessity of extraterrestrial transportation. I couldn't help but agree as I recalled to myself the number of times I stared up at the stars at night, transfixed by their beauty, even in the suburbs, and felt caged. The world is a big place, sure, and there are many things yet to learn and understand about it. But wherever you go, someone has been there. Maybe not in the past century. Maybe not for several millennia, but so long as your feet are touching dry ground, there's a good chance someone has stood there before, or at the very least, within a hundred feet of there.

The earth is a big place, with many natural and artificial wonders to explore. Take this building, for example. It used to be anywhere from two to four brick and stone buildings, and now a three-story glass atrium has joined them into a single, tame space. It's a beautiful place to sit and type essays and stories while I wait for my class to begin. Take the forests of Table Rock, South Carolina. They're gorgeous, dappled with jubulent sunlight, cooled by the shade of a hundred thousand deciduous and evergreen trees, and supplied with wide, shallow, rippling streams. They're intriguing, but they're not new. You're not likely to notice something that will really help someone unless you know about everything that's been established in the field so far. But getting off-world, well, that's straight-up exploration. Everything's new. You can report anything you see and it won't have been pre-confirmed or pre-established.

Besides that, though, there is a lot of argument that we're not taking care of our planet. Even if you're not convinced on global warming, there are still recycling problems, pollution, and extinction of entire species to consider. And even if you're fine with those, there are the social problems that are still part of our planet. Abortion, crime, and mal-treatment of various kinds, including war, torture, slavery, forced prostitution, and other defilements of the gifts given to us, all of which date back as far as people have forgotten what it means to love one another. We have some ideas of how to counteract these. "Tree-huggers" and missionaries, green-thinkers and rescue missions, animal rights groups and non-profit organizations like Compassion International, World Vision, and the International Justice Mission all work as hard as they can to correct what they see is wrong in the world, even while others, who like the way things are, work just as hard (with seemingly more outcome) to un-right the same wrongs. It's all a gigantic mess.

It's quite tempting to start over. Maybe if we tried again, somewhere else, while all this was still going on, we could see how it all started and how to stop it. Maybe while we expand the knowledge of science with experiments in new environments; of engineering with new challenges and conditions; of literature with new experiences and observations; maybe we'll see things more simply, as did anyone who had the risk of death in the wilderness hanging over his head. What is simpler than loving and depending on one another for your lives? Maybe we can take this learning back to "Old Home Terra" (see Heinlein's Time Enough for Love) and change the world. How has expansion affected any previous culture? Has there not been peace for the period of that expansion? Has there not been a burst in education, in science, and in learning? Has there not been more tolerance with trade and exploration?

Maybe the human race was created (or, to be PC, indelibly ingrained at some point in evolution) with a deep-seated need for expansion and for learning. If so, what are we doing stuck on one little (albeit beautiful) clump of atoms, confined to one regular orbit around one mediocre star? Don't get me wrong. I love our planet. I love our accomplishments, but we are people of the first derivative. We seem to care more about positive change than our current, high positions, so let's create some positive change for everyone. Let's create a positive change and send the overflowing pennies and Sacagawea dollars out to everyone. (Not literally, of course. Don't dare believe I think more money is the answer. More money to the space program than to politicians, certainly, but not necessarily more money per person.) Let's get out there and learn. Let's change several worlds at a time.

"By leaving the atmosphere, you can see more."

Do you realize how bizarre cola is? It's like something out of nineteenth century science fiction: bubbling tonics, potions to give energy that are some unnatural, industrial color. *sip* I can't believe anyone can stand the stuff. *gulp*

Hi from college! I'm sitting in the auditorium, waiting for the second day of class to begin. Right now, computers are about as prevalent and visible in here as notebooks are, and the combination of the two is about equal to the empty desks. Still, this is a massively cool place with massively awesome people. As for the teacher, they seem okay, too, though I don't have nearly as much data to work with. Oh, and my roommate should be in her somewhere, but I don't see her. She had another class before this, though.

This is a pretty cool place, though, and I'm happy to be here. It's busy, though, so if anyone wants to talk to me, drop me an e-mail; I have to check it for school, anyway, and I will respond within a couple days... if I sense that you want a response. But I probably will.