Hanging like a jewel in the dark, the Earth shines as depicted on NOAA's Science On a Sphere, even in a grainy cell phone snap!
Read MoreBREAKING THE RULES
Here's a piece of art that breaks all the rules, and by doing so provokes something profound. It asks us in a way that all great and significant questions should be asked, in a clear, level, calm voice: “Do we truly understand the merits of the rules we claim govern our culture, our values, and our paths through the world?”
Read MoreTHE ROMANCE OF SPACE, THE IDEALIZATION OF NASA
People also care about NASA because it represents what's right about government, at least in principle. It holds out promise and hope that someone —someone—in charge can get beyond petty arguments about superficial things and actually bring something complicated--like a mission to another planet!-- into being. NASA represents the nation we wish were our own no matter what nation we call home.
Read MoreREMEMBERED
Will you be?
What about what the things you did?
Memories may be the ultimate human creation. By this I don't mean the memories you make for yourself. You have a head full of those. But when you create a memory for somebody else, good or bad, you've ever so slightly adjusted the calibration of the universe.
Read MoreRITUALS
Authentic rituals provide a solid place from which to push off. After than, anything is possible.
Read MoreONE FINAL CODA FROM JAPAN
Sometimes expressions of the creative soul come out from unexpected people in hard-to-predict circumstances.
Read MoreA DEPARTURE, AN ARRIVAL
Aboard that rocket is the accumulated effort of many diverse people, spanning years and miles. As it rises into space, the major engineering phase ends and the operational scientific phase begins --Photo by Bill Ingalls, NASA
Read MoreLAUNCH REHEARSAL -- Tanegashima Space Center, Feb 22
A rocket very similar to this one will carry the GPM satellite into space. The whole enterprise is the product of hundreds of people, all working to do something none of them could do alone.
Read MoreTYPES OF PEOPLE
Dog people.
Admit it: you know them. These are the people who believe their pekinese are the bees knees. They're people who can tell you everything about teaching Terriers to talk, walking with Weimeraners, and shearing a Sheltie.
How about car people?
You know the type--the kind of people who can spend two hours on a precious Saturday discussing whether a straight-six has better torque than a V-eight, assuming proportional engine displacement. (I have no idea whether it does or not, but I overheard this conversation the other day and I couldn't help but be fascinated.)
There are subcultures for everything and this truism is a wellspring for narrative.
Then there are creative people. Actors, painters, musicians: they're simply weird. (It's okay. I'm speaking about ourselves.) What makes a creative person? A creative person experiments with his or her world, all the time. They can't help themselves. They're restless because there are a million possibilities, and only enough time to explore a few. Creative people are flowing over with the need to create, and sometimes they don't even know why themselves.
But wait, aren't LOTS of people creative to some degree? Of the millions of office workers selling insurance and shuffling medical records and ordering plywood shipments for the local hardware store, aren't many of them also into playing the guitar in their free time? Into knitting? Cooking? Building with Lego? I may prefer the bassoon player to the basset house breeder, but that's not the point.
I turn to animators for certain solutions, accountant for others. But the ones I like the most are those who are open, even interested, to learn new things always, even as they make certain disciplines unique specialties.
But it goes deeper than simply being a subject matter expert. It goes to the marrow, to a person's intangible core. Curious people are different than those who aren't, and I mean no malice when I say that not everyone is curious.
There are types of people who instill confidence in little more than a glance. There are people who make you believe they've got your back, no matter how hard the battle ahead threatens to be. There are people with whom you want to spend your fleeting life, just as there are those who's most basic yes or no answer can make you feel like they're consuming your brief, precious day.
These people too: there are those who look for cheapskate shortcuts. There are those who try to sell you on "good enough". There are those who trade life experiences like used cars, always looking for the next better model. There are people who'll sell you short, run you ragged simply because they can, push you endlessly, not give a damn.
I care about those who look for solutions. I enjoy those who gravitate toward collaboration, even as they are just as interested in focusing like singular laser beams, alone. Those who are curious, who listen, who push themselves and want to discover new ideas always grab my attention. That's because creativity has no singular solution. There are endless ways to bring ides to life, just as there are endless ideas to bring to life. I'm fascinated by the disciplines that people choose to make their life's work, even if I'm not interested in that particular work itself. (I'm not a dog person, for example.)
But among the many, many types of people out there, I'll still always gravitate to one type of person above all others. Regardless of discipline there's a rare breed who makes you believe in integrity above all, in honest efforts and open exchanges of ideas and civil discourse to discuss the vagaries of whatever it is being discussed no matter how challenging the subject. Those are the types of people with whom I most like to create. Those are the types of people who most fire my soul.
--MS
@michaelstarobin facebook.com/1auglobalmedia facebook.com/michael.starobin
LET IT BE -- Closing notes from Japan
People want to be part of experiences that make them feel connected to other people, want to make them feel greater than the strength of their own individual efforts. Sometimes those expressions happen in the most unlikely places.
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