Hello Troops,
I imagine the woman in the painting is your great great granddaughter, holding your first great, great, great, great grandson. They are entering orbit of the first habitable Earth like planet mankind discovered in 2015.
Your descendants are among the first to colonize this new world. They say their pioneering spirit comes from you. You were the one who dreamt of far distant places. You are the one who kept a journal of your fantasy trips into deep space on a ship called Voyager at a school in northern Utah.
"One day what we did at the Space Center will be real. People will travel into space and live on other planets," you wrote long ago in a journal your family will treasure.
Your trip to the Space Center got you interested in space. You read about space. You loved the sci-fi television shows and movies. You spent many an hour looking up at the stars wondering who and what was out there; and if there was intelligent life on a distant planet, did they know we existed on this tiny blue marble in space? And even though you never became an astronaut or engineer or astronomer, you supported your country's space programs and always voted for people who believed like you, that our place was out with the stars.
Your love of space was passed on to your children. One of your sons became an engineer. He helped develop the ion drive engine for the country's first deep space probe. One of your granddaughters worked for the Mars Terraforming Administration. She helped develop a new strain of grain developed to thrive in Martian soil. One of your great grandsons spent several months living on the permanent Moon colony. One of your great great granddaughters pioneered a new branch of exomedicine. Her work opened the door for her family to take part in the colonization of New Earth.
Who knows what distant shores your descendants will walk. Who knows what stars they will see in their night sky; and all of this, because of your love for space and space exploration.
The future is bright. What part will you play in its writing?
Mr. W.
An Email from a Former Volunteer Now Serving in Afghanistan
Brooklyn Welch sent this email Christmas greeting to all. Brooklyn was a long time Space Center volunteer. She joined the army after high school and is deployed in Afghanistan working as an army field medic.
Friends and Family,
As we get closer and closer to Christmas, I cant help but be amazed at how fortunate we are in America. I look around and see kids running barefoot in the snow, and parents struggling to get by. And even though these Afghans have almost nothing, they're still happy. It kinda makes me wonder where we lost it in America. I would like to ask everyone back home to try to involve service in your days as you prepare for Christmas.
I've also had a chance to see God's hand in our lives, keeping us safe. About a month ago, one of the vehicles in my convoy lost control and rolled 2 and a half times. As I ran over to the vehicle to check for casualties, I was amazed to find that two out of the four passengers were already outside pulling security. Both of these soldiers were completely uninjured. I climbed in the gunners hatch to find the third passenger collecting his gear, also uninjured. I then saw the last passenger climbing out the back. He had the only injury, a cut on one finger. I should probably note that this isn't just a normal vehicle. It weighs almost 40,000 lbs. In addition to that weight, it was also full of gear in the back. The gunner ( the one with the cut), was incredibly lucky to only have the one minor injury, since he was basically unrestrained during the rollover. There were so many things that could have gone wrong- The gunner could have forgotten to drop into the vehicle ( the turret was entirely destroyed), they all could have decided not to wear their seat belts, they could have forgotten to tie down they gear. But today, they didn't. It was a miracle that every single passenger was able to walk away from what could have been a devastating accident.
As I pass the halfway point of this deployment, the days have started to run together. So I've decided to try to find at least one good thing each day. I tried to include an awesome pic of a picture of the leaves turning nearby one of the cobs I was stationed at, but unfortunately the internet isn't fast enough to upload a picture.I guess I'll have to show you guys when I get home. It's unreal how much this place looks just like Utah.
I hope all of you have a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!
And Now, something to ponder.
Programmer sent the following email:
This is how you get the universe from nothingness. Nothingness is the property of not being. If there were a never ending amount of things to not be, nothing would not be able to not be them all. This is because never ending never ends. So the universe would be nothing getting around to not doing a never ending amount of things. It would get around to not doing them one at a time.
Each frame of time in the universe (another configuration of it) slips off into the past and becomes nothing. This would mean that there is a never ending amount of time in the universe. The future would go on forever. Now think of an example of nothing getting around to not doing a thing: where events slip off into nothingness. Look close enough and you will see that perception does this. Our perception is like a hole that experiences go into. The past frames of time don't stack up on the present frame of time. The past frames of time have become nothingness. Being that our perception is more like a hole than a material, might it be that we live after we die?
Thanks programmer. I'm not sure I get it but I want you to know that I read it several times in an attempt comprehend its meaning. It's a bit of a mind / logic puzzle, good for a ponder on a cold dark winter's night.
