So as I mentioned in my last blog entry, I attended a talk by former astronaut Captain Alan Bean of the Apollo 12 mission. This is a very interesting man, as he is not only a former astronaut, he is quite an artist as well! And there were a couple of things he said that 1) struck me really deeply and/or 2) made me think. There were quite a few pearls of wisdom scattered about his speech that I felt were worth highlighting.
The first thing he was talking about that really struck me was the story he told of when he was landing on the moon. He talked about how they had done this in simulations hundreds of times on Earth, but when it came to the real thing, it was a whole different animal. He talked about how all the details of the moon were so much clearer, how there appeared to be so many more craters and boulders than there was on the simulated version of the moon that they'd used on Earth... so much so that he began having a panic attack as they neared the moon's surface. He said he looked down at his feet and, out of his peripheral, the moon looked like it had in the simulations. He was able to calm himself enough to be able to peer out again. Again he felt himself start to panic a little, so he looked back down at his feet. He repeated this, each time being able to peer out a little longer, until he was able to look out without feeling panicked. It's a bit corny, but it's a testament that sometimes when you have challenges in your life, it's not always good to look at them head on.. sometimes it's good to take in the peripheral, as it may not be so daunting.
He also shared a story of an interaction between himself and his colleague and trip mate, Pete Conrad. Bean apparently wasn't a huge fan of a particular person on their team-- the person just seemed to think differently than the other people on the team and didn't always "gel." Bean suggested to Conrad that they replace this person, as he wasn't a good teammate. Bean fully expected a "you're right, Alan, he doesn't work well on this team.." and so forth response. But instead, Conrad said "Maybe you're not a good teammate." He went on to explain that good teammates work to lift each other up and think admiring thoughts of one another instead of tearing each other down or being critical of one another. Bean made a point that almost everyone thinks they work well on a team, but very few do.. at least in this sense. He also made a parallel in his own life about how his wife was his biggest "teammate" and how he always works hard to think admiring thoughts of her instead of pointing out or even focusing on the things she may forget to do or whatever the case may be. It's a very interesting and positive way of looking at the world and at collaboration. Inevitably you won't always get along with or agree with every person you are ever put on a team with. But by focusing on the positive, you don't get pulled down in that rut of negativity. I can imagine it would make the teamwork experiences much more productive and positive EVERY time instead of only times when we're put on teams with people we like, get along with, and share all the same ideas about things.
One thing I started thinking about that Capt Bean likely never intended with his talk was how virtual worlds are somewhat like a canvas to the mass population. Bean is an artist by trade now and he shared some paintings that he did of various things in which he somewhat rewrote history. His paintings (or at least the ones he shared) are all about his experiences and others' experiences in space. There were often things that he and his colleagues wished they'd done, so he would paint them into existence (example: he and his teammate joked that they wished they'd thought to bring a football and throw it around, so he painted a painting of them doing just that). It made me think about the possibilities that virtual worlds afford us-- we can be anything (literally ANYTHING) we want to in a virtual world. We can change our appearance, change our occupation, change our sex, whatever we want. Virtual worlds are canvases on which we can "paint" any number of possibilities for ourselves.
The last big thing that Bean talked about that I think I found most interesting was how much he appreciated Earth after his trip to the moon. He talked about how he took so much more pleasure in the mundane and how being on the moon changed his perspective so much about how wonderful and magnificent Earth is. He says he never complains about the weather anymore and some days he loves to just go to the mall and people watch. Now, I myself thoroughly enjoy a good session of people watching... but I would expect almost the opposite reaction. I was recently watching a television program on which an astronaut talked about his trip to the moon (this was a fictional program) and someone asked him about watching the Earth "come up" while on the moon and how vast the universe was. The man said being up in space was the first thing he thought of in the morning and the last thing he thought of at night and how nothing could ever compare to the beauty he saw and the amazement he felt. This is what I would expect an astronaut to say.. yet for Bean it seems to have only made him appreciate Earth so much more. I just thought this was so enlightening and even maybe refreshing, as it was a complete contrast of what I'd expected.
Some other little anecdotal bits that I thought were curious/interesting/thought provoking:
Scientists believe that, in 30 million years, the footprints that the astronauts left on the moon will likely look exactly as they did the day the astronauts made them (assuming no future tourists trample them.. Capt Bean seems confident we'll be taking groups of tourists to the moon in a thousand or so years).
When Capt. Bean was on the moon, he chucked a lapel pin he used to wear (that I believe he said NASA gave him when he became an astronaut) out into a crater. He said he liked to think about how that pin will look exactly like it did the day he threw it out there when some aforementioned tourist finds it in a thousand or so years (because there's no "elements" to make it rust or tarnish, or even get dirty).
And one last pearl of wisdom...
We are not limited here on Earth-- the astronauts lived the impossible dream (as Bean called it). "The only limits on us are the ones we place on ourselves."
Well put, Captain Bean.
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