• How do you loose 100 billion of anything?

    Don’t ask me. I’m pretty sure I’ve never owned 100 billion of anything anyone would be likely to count, let alone lost them. Our government lately seems pretty good at loosing billions of things a year. But a single company loosing 100 billion U.S. dollars? In one year? I estimate that I made about .0000003% of what AOL Time Warner lost in one year. The displacement of my perspective could be measured on the Richter Scale.

  • The dream must not be lost.

    I never wanted to be an astronaut. Of course, my saying I never wanted to be an astronaut is like Ronald Reagan saying he never wanted to be a liberal. I’ve never had a real aptitude for physical sciences. Uncle Sam was pointing in the other direction when he said “I want you!” I have a particularly acute fear of heights. For me, waiting in line for a roller coaster is kind of like waiting for someone to shove bamboo shoots under your fingernails. Me and the space program have an understanding, they don’t want people like me and I don’t want them. Here’s the thing though, I desperately want them to succeed. People ask me why and I have trouble answering. Sure, there is the science – but that doesn’t do it for me. There is the national pride in our technological feats, but I don’t think that is a very good reason either. For me, it is the fact that, as a society we are pushing the envelope, we are moving forward, we are going where we haven’t gone before. It is the dream of accomplishing the impossible, believing that we really can accomplish anything if we just put our minds to it. I fear that if we loose that dream; or worse, if we refuse that dream – we will cease to dream. That is not a time that I want to live through.

    Since Saturday I have already read of people questioning the necessity of manned space flight in our time. I’ve heard people saying that it is just not worth the cost of human life to go into space. Do we dishonor the memory of those who have died by forsaking the dream, in their name? I think we do. I hope the tragedy of this weekend results not in the forsaking of the dream, but in a discussion of how we can better realize the dream.

    Here’s to hoping.

  • Who am I to say.

    I’d like to think that I am above certain things. I see advertisements for fancy luxury cars, and I say to myself, “how could anyone spend that much on a car?” Surely I would not squander my wealth in such a way, if I had wealth.

    I have a penchant for taking up the opposite side of an issue in conversations with people. It really doesn’t matter which side I actually believe in, I argue the merits of the opposite side of the conversation with zeal. Today I was engaged in light conversation about the values of our society, when I found myself admitting that I may be no better than those I tend to criticize about their spending. I realized that I too tend accumulate things for which “need” is only perceived. Regardless of what I earn, it tends to get spent. I suspect that this tends to be the rule rather than the exception. Look at that guy with three computers! How could anyone spend so much on electronic toys?

    Perhaps the only difference among us is how much we have to spend on our “needs.” But no, that’s not true either. Frugality is a trait that spans the wealthy and the poor alike. The real question is, am I more frugal than those I criticize? Is the only difference between myself and those I criticize gross earnings? Oh hell, no one’s perfect. I am happy with what I have, even if I sometimes think I need more.