Anybody Can Do It

I spent last weekend in Los Angeles, celebrating the 75th birthday of Griffith Observatory AND going to the big open house weekend at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. It was a fine weekend for geeking out and appreciating space “stuff.”  One of the keynote speakers at the Griffith birthday celebration was Edward James Olmos, a gifted actor who we’ve seen in many different venues from film to TV.  He exhorted us all to support Griffith’s outreach program, which brings children from across LA to the observatory for field trips to the stars. I liked his passion and wished that more folks would reach out as he did to let us know what a field trip to the observatory meant to HIM when he was a child.  LA’s mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa also told the assembled masses about HIS first trip to the observatory when he was a kid, and throughout the night, I heard other men and women — all members of Friends of the Observatory — sharing their view of this remarkable place and how it inspired them to achieve something in their lives.

The next day I went to JPL to see the exhibits that I worked on for NASA during the past few months. The JPL Open House always attracts thousands of people to visit the place where planetary and space exploration gets started. It was a fun time and I was quite gratified to see all the many families coming in to learn more about our wonderful space program

You never know when a visit to JPL or a public observatory or your local planetarium will help someone soar to the stars. Many people who work in space, or in space-related jobs talk about their first visits to the planetarium in their town, or a special teacher who turned them on to space and astronomy as the spur that got them into their current jobs.

But, an interest in the stars doesn’t have to take you to space — look at the actor and mayor — they got turned on to the cosmos at an early age, and they used those experiences to motivate themselves in their lives.   A trip to the stars may not always GET you to the stars. But it can spur you onwards to accomplish things, to a sense of doing what you want to do, perhaps by serving others, or taking on the study of science, or getting ahead in education and just simply being good at what you do.  It sure as heck beats sitting around not using one’s brain, doesn’t it?  Knowledge and rational studies of science beat out superstition, fear, ignorance and hatred in my book. So, let’s hear it for the transformative power of space and the stars. They show us what’s possible; they challenge us to find something inside ourselves that helps us achieve greatness!