WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE

Space is supposed to be the last frontier.  If we want to go “where no man has gone before” we must venture into outer space.  Space exploration, unfortunately, costs a great deal of money and a lot of advanced planning, especially if you want to return alive.  So, it is expensive and dangerous.  It is not for the poor or timid.

The oceans have been charted and most interior land masses have been explored or, at least, plotted through satellite imagery.  This might cause some young people to decide that there is nothing left for them to explore or discover.

They are wrong.

There is one place where no man has gone before that only they can discover.  It is their life.

John Grunsfeld, deputy director at the Space Telescope Science Institute, was quoted in an interview about the future of NASA directed space travel as saying, “NASA doesn’t have a story right now.”  And, he added, “Exploration is nothing if not the articulation of a great story.”

What can be more exciting than exploring, expressing, or articulating the story of our lives – and only we can give this story the excitement it deserves.

Each day and with each little step we take, we walk where truly no person has walked before.  No other person could.  We are unique and our lives are unique, uncharted territories waiting for us to discover them.

Adventure?  What can be more exciting than discovering your first love?  What can be more devastating than to have that person reject you?  The disappointment the Apollo 13 astronauts felt when they had to turn away from their expected landing on the moon and complete a race for their lives to return to earth was crushing, I am sure.  But their training helped them understand that through science and human perseverance they would prevail.  Nothing prepares us for the heartbreak of a breakup.  We have to struggle as hard as any explorer to work our way “back home,” back to a world where things make sense and where we can again look forward to tomorrow.

Discovery?  Our lives are one long expedition to discover what kind of parents we will make, what job we will have a year from now, how we will do in college, when will we finally feel comfortable driving a car, what is the dress code for the event we are going to, and so on.  So many choices, so many decisions.  Those choices and decision determine our lives.

We are assured by parents, teachers and friends that we are not alone.  Yet, we usually feel very much alone.  We are told, “I know how you feel,” but we suspect the speaker cannot possibly know how we feel.  We are slashing our way through a jungle of new ideas and new experiences that will eventually articulate the great story called our lives.  We are walking where no man has gone before.