July 21, 2008

"Because It Is The Hardest Thing I Can Do"

Earthrise as seen from the Command Module of Apollo 11. The Lunar module carrying Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin is in the foreground NASA photo

My father told me once that astronaut Scott Carpenter was asked why he gave up a promising Navy career to join the Mercury 7. Then, after his stunning success flying Aurora 7 into orbit, he didnt stay with NASA, but went on to get involved with the SEALAB project and so on. His accidental injury that grounded him from space flight notwithstanding, Carpenter was said to have said "Because its the hardest thing I can do..."

I find myself totally relating to that mindset as I plunge through life's journey. I have not been one to settle for the easy road, and it has not always been met with success, however, there are few things in my life that I regret even though the outcome is currently unpleasant. I know that its not the bumps in the road but the road itself that is worthwhile


A Family photo left on the lunar surface by Astronaut Charles Duke Apollo 16 NASA photo

It has been my custom to write about my family and our struggle every year on the week of July 20Th. The Mercury-Gemini-Apollo missions are under rated and not discussed much, when every, and I do mean every facet of our lives has been changed by the incredible achievements of all who were involved in that great undertaking. I feel as do many of those families who had loved ones involved in the Space Program of the 60's and 70's that it was a military venture and that the sacrifices made were as honorable as any that were made by those in a shooting war. Both the post One Small Step For A Manand the post about my families pioneering spirit in this post One Giant Leap.

This year, as I have watched the documentaries When We Left Earthand Tom Hanks' masterpiece From Earth to the MoonI marveled anew at the determination of these people and how much I had personally given in losing my father to this war, even though he survived it and was a part of our lives for another 20 years. As I look at this photo of Charley Duke's family left for other explorers to find some day, I think that was our family, wrapped in plastic, left forever on the cold lunar surface forever frozen in time.

This seems to be a time for me to deal with the "first things" or "first works" as Jesus tells the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2:4-5

Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place--unless you repent.

I have had, in recent days, been confronted with a personality that closely resembles my father, really the best things about him and in him. But like my father, he isnt one to suffer fools gladly and seems to never be satisfied with my poor offerings and efforts. Like the child I was so many years ago I have felt the joy of life being slowly and painfully crushed out of me in these last weeks. Do the first works??? Forgiveness,gentleness and kindness in the face of harshness and worse being just ignored as though I am invisible. I know that forgiving my parents and extended family for this sort of treatment is something I must put into practice as well. And it isnt natural or easy, it takes as much determination as anything. However it is a thing worth doing and pays a high reward in the end...and I choose to do it... after all it is the hardest thing I can do...

Earthrise taken from the Command Module of Apollo 17 NASA

Photo Credits Boston.com "The Big Picture"

Labels: Faith, Family History, History, scripture

May 25, 2008

Land of Lincoln~A Memorial Day Post

"The Knob Creek Place" Believed to be the cabin where Abraham Lincoln spent his early boyhood years. Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site Hodgkinsville KY

"I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families—second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks.... My father ... removed from Kentucky to ... Indiana, in my eighth year.... It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up.... Of course when I came of age I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher ... but that was all A Short biographical sketch by Abraham Lincoln himself to a reporter."

Tonight I hear a man say that we shouldnt honor those fallen in war but rather those fallen in the cause of right and peace. I have mixed feelings about this statement as I believe that any one who chooses to put on this nations uniform is deserving of the nations gratitude...But what of those that served the cause of justice and preserving the peace? Yes the should receive all honor and respect but let us go first to that man that lead the nation through its worst crisis, and sacrificed much to lead our nation through a terrible war

As I walked around the Lincoln birthplace I was astounded at the primitiveness of the cabin and the surroundings. It was a rough life, a impoverished life on the frontier. But that built a character in Lincoln, that perhaps no other lifestyle would have. Now having lived in the region for a few years I know that the elements are harsh and that those that lived off of the land eked out barely an existence.

While living on Knob Creek near the road that ran from Bardstown (the territorial capital at the time) to "Hodgkins Mill" now Hodgekinsville) the boy Lincoln saw Slaves being driven to market, and solders going off to the frontier to fight the Indian. His Father was a tenant farmer, a sharecropper, who later moved his family to the Indiana territory so he could actually own the land he worked. Being of a lesser class and seeing how those even less fortunate than himself made an impression that lasted throughout his life. The inequalities of his day were innately wrong in his eyes even at a young age.

There is much more I could write but it is information that is well known. He was perhaps the most religious of any of our former Presidents, and he leaned heavily on his faith during the trials of his life. He prayed for inspiration, and I believe that God granted his requests. A poorly educated man, the work that framed his literary reference was the King James Bible. You can see that in his most famous work, a speech written in one draft on the back of an envelope with no corrections. ( I have seen that rough draft in Washington DC) But God and the Bible inspired this speech which I post for the Memorial Day...

The Gettysburg Address
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
November 19, 1863

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

May God Bless our Service Men and Women today and especially those in harms way...


The Abraham Lincoln Birthplace Memorial,Sinking Springs farm, near Hodgkinsville KY. Inside this "temple" is a 16 foot by 18 foot mud and timber cabin that for many years was believed to be the cabin where Lincoln was born. Turns out that this was a newer cabin built about 1840, but nearly in the same spot as the older one stood

Labels: History, Kentucky, Quotable Quotes