I Want To Be A Spaceman
Well, what I really want to be is a space traveler. And besides, I’m a grrl.
Ever since sitting down with my dad to watch every episode of the original Star Trek series on television each week in the 60s, I’ve wanted to travel to far off planets to meet new cultures and creatures and well, just to have an adventure, to explore. Yeah, I’m geeky like that (but give me a break, it’s only a part of me, the rest of me is cool). But still, it’s probably also the thing that gave me the desire to travel on this planet. Last night’s futuristic U2 concert streamed live over the internet reminded me of that space travel desire.
What time is it in the world?
And where are we going?
Sometimes I think that space travel is the new American dream. We have come to realize, probably more on a subconscious level, that the American dream of home ownership, abundant food on the table, freedom, and a government that works for us is as outdated as those first Star Trek shows and our pioneering spirit. And discovering new places is now almost impossible on planet Earth – just use google to search the travel sphere. Probably the only way we, as a culture, are ever going to have that sense of discovery back is to fly off in a spaceship.
It’s like Bono says, You’ve been all over, and it’s been all over you. Been there done that.
I once had a boyfriend from South Africa. He grew up there and came to The States as a musician during the height of apartheid. He stayed here and made a life for himself. Of all of the South Africans I know who live here where I live, he was probably the most westernized, the one who adapted. So it shouldn’t have surprised me that one day when he asked me, if I had the opportunity to be on the first ship to Mars would I go? Yes! I replied almost instantly. He chuckled and said, me too.
I don’t know why it surprised me so that my friend, who spent his childhood growing up in a roundhouse with a dirt floor out in the veld somewhere, who is so very down to earth, would dream about flying off to a distant planet just to see what is there. Or that it was something we had in common. Two people from two extremely and completely different backgrounds considering the same ultimate journey.
It is the final frontier, you know.
So now I wonder. If you had the chance to travel in space, to leave this world, this planet – as beautiful and crazy as it is – behind, would you?
