If someone asked me if I wanted a one way trip to Mars, I would say yes. This has been my mind set for more than 10 years. And if I'm really being honest; ever since I can remember.
Before I exude my wanting to leave this planet for another, let me trace some history.
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| NASA photo |
... a pop, then a spark. followed by the crackle of flames hungrily eating away a half charcoaled log of pine. the scent of a campfire wafts through the air surrounding the light produced by the fire. small, still-red-hot pieces of ash drift into the air. following the ghostly outline of smoke trailing up high into the air.
beside the fire, a small, blonde headed kid looks up. the nape of his neck rests on the back of his chair and his neck sprains backward. he squints as he shines a flashlight through the smoke. He traces the trail of spent carbon as far as he can with the light from his electric candle. until it feels like he is shining his light on the stars themselves. then he shuts off his flashlight. he gazes at the massive quantity of small, but definable little dots in the sky. he wonders whats up there, and what it would be like to wander up there.
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| NASA photo |
I'm a romantic. I like theatrics when they can be enjoyed by all. and one thing that has continued to be romantic to me has been looking at the stars. trying to count them with a encircled hand up to my eye. trying to spot a satellite passing by. or even, on a good night, the slower moving international space station. it's a pure passion. the indefinite amount of view from a dark, clear sky into the abyss makes everything else fall away. It's like looking into the eyes of a woman i'm in love with. it's romance.
I have, and always will be, enamored with the stars. with space. with the unknown. the only 'terrestrial' thing equivalent is actually aquatic, at the bottom of the ocean. But I can't stare at the bottom of the ocean.
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| NASA photo |
I want to know whats up there. not in any real tangible sense. Like extraterrestrial life, or different ecosystems of different planets, or even the simple question of is there anything else out there. I want to know whats up there in the sense of going to a new city, and walking around just to look at stuff. in the sense of going to a neighborhood you've never been to and checking out everybody's front lawns. everybody's home. how they make it their home. just to look at it. like driving by lights on Christmas eve.
The question of would you leave everything behind for an unnguaranteed trip to the unknown comes up whenever i talk about this. and yes, i would. i would leave the possibility of being in a successful band. the microscopic chance that the woman im in love with would want me back. the future experiences with my family and friends. any and all of the unknown that life on this planet has to offer. i would leave.
it isn't out of any circumstantial, environmental, emotional, or psychological escape. because in my mind, i wouldn't be escaping. i would be traveling to the most unknown, the most uncertain experience my life could ever have the chance to offer. and that is too beautiful a thing to pass up.
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| NASA photo |
if there is ever one materialistic, human-made thing i witness in my life the really means anything, i hope its space travel. and successful travel to mars. and i will always dream of being a direct and immediate part of it.
