reading the sad blog entries here and there, i see that there is a heavy sense of mourning for the deaths of the Challenger crew, much more heavy-hearted than my own reaction. i suppose i have rather a different outlook on death?
these were not senseless deaths. news of senseless death sends me into despair, for instance, in last week’s la times, there was an in depth feature on the ongoing tragedy of black-on-black murders taking place on the streets of los angeles. it was difficult to make myself read the whole thing, the interviews with the parents who’d had to identify their children’s bodies, who had to bury their unrealized hopes and dreams and go on living knowing there was very little hope that the killers would be caught. the sense of hopelessness i felt reading about whole communities dealing with such unthinkable loss on such a regular basis … knowing this makes something inside me just break.
but when i heard of the space shuttle tragedy, one of my very first thoughts was that there are far worse things than dying doing something meaningful, in spite of the danger. the loss of these seven brilliant and couragous individuals is terrible, but there is nothing hopeless in this, on the contrary, it speaks to me of the very best of the human spirit. and this news did not make anything inside me want to break.
it takes an amazing person to pursue a career in which death is always a possible outome. these are people who had a vision, who pursued their life’s passions with amazing sucess. they were the best of the best, they loved their work, and they knew they were making a difference in the world. how many of us spend our lives serving a greater purpose, knowing that we are making significant contributions, accepting that part of this involves putting our lives on the line? the exploration of space is the most idealistic of pursuits, it represents hope for a benevolent future based on the expansion of our reach in the universe. the men and women involved are committed to this, to the extent that they accept the grave dangers involved. they did not let the fear of death interfere with their mission.
life is consummated in death, it becomes finite and complete in that defining moment: a unit, a whole, a lifetime, for whatever that’s worth when it happens. and when life is lost in the course of fulfilling its chosen purpose, that offers us the opportunity to set aside the worst of the tragedy and take solace in the knowledge that that life was not stolen in some inexplicable random twist of fate. there is peace to be found in accepting that the life taken had been willingly offered, in order to accomplish something bigger than itself.
people die in the line of duty every day. how that happens is less important than the fact it happened in the course of doing something important, something they believed was worth the risk of their lives. to me it seems that there should be an element of celebration in the sadness that follows, the celebration of a life well lived.
Very well said, kd.
Thank you.
Dan took the words right out of my mouth
Very very well said! I think that was one of the best and most profound tributes I’ve read so far.
thank you for putting your thought into words kd.
*hugs*
thank you for putting your thought into words kd.
*hugs*
Well put indeed. It’s selfish, but I ask things like “what more could they have contributed had they lived?”
John Donne’s phrase “Every man’s death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind” was right, but there are some deaths which diminish more than others, I think.
yes, there is definitely a great loss to humanity when this sort of thing happens, but i try not to have those “what if” thoughts – because the nature of the things they were doing for humanity include this sort of risk, it’s part of the process of progress. pioneering is like this.
a crowd of people stood and stared, they’d seen his face before
With all today’s news coverage of the Columbia explosion, one might think that no one else, in the entire world, died today. If you took a second from CNN’s constant coverage to think about it, you’d realize that couldn’t possib…
and for all that, they died on way back from a successful mission, having accomplished their goals and lived a dream most of us can only ever dream about. no matter that it ended badly, that was where they wanted to be and they did good.
curse you kd… That’s the sort of post that I wanted to write. You put into words much better than I could have though. Fine ladies and gentlemen who should be celebrated for their accomplishments, and mourned because they can’t now continue their work.
still it’s a tragedy.
great post, kd!
kd–that was a great look at the bright side of the picture. Thank you so much for posting this. It was amazing.
Very well put.
I, for one, am very jealous of the way they died…
I heard this morning that during the time of descent you are surrounded by beautiful flashing lights. I picture this happening to them, and then they died. How great.
It takes a tragedy to even know their names. I didn’t even know there was an Indian on board. All I ever heard about was the Isreali.
As far as whatever else they were capable of: that is true of all of us. The best books have yet to be written. The best poems yet to be put to paper……
I seem to be going insane. I would swear I posted here yesterday that this was beautiful.
So Sad for Shuttle Columbia
I remember the day we lost the Challenger, 28Jan86. I was in graduate school. I had taught my classes and walked into my advisor’s office to say “Hi!” and see what was going on. (A
Well, for the love of peanuts. I probably should have read your post here before thinking *I* was such a scrooge for not being all torn up about the shuttle thing.
I’m with you, kd.
“it takes an amazing person to pursue a career in which death is always a possible outome.”
Yes, and yes, and again yes.
Well said.
That was me up there.
Drat.
I agree with your thoughts here.