For those who haven't been following Chris Hadfield on Facebook and Twitter, in his five months as commander of the ISS, he has given the public a rare look into the goings on in space. Communicating with classrooms, testing out people's theories, and sending down daily images of the glory of Earth are just a few of the ways he made his journey special. He is due to arrive back on Earth tonight and to commemorate, he's left us with this wonderful send off.
Video from Chris Hadfield's YouTube Channel
I'm so unexpectedly moved by this post Allison! This is my first time reading your blog and if the rest is as meaningful, I can't wait to explore your years of posts! This post makes me think about the meaning that perspective taking brings to our lives. I find my self wondering what the sky look like in his mind? How must 18 months of orbital experience shape your perspective on gun control, human rights or climate change. After watching his guitar floating around the International space station I think about how much we can learn about our own humanity by the instruments we build to appease our own instinct to create art and music. For some time now I have studied what it is about use that makes us human. I think about the evolutionary biology of the prefrontal cortex and wonder if animals ever experience the kind of imaginative processes we go through as people. Imagination that leads to The Handmaid's Tale or the Parthenon. I have been deeply inspired by my current fascination with seeing humans as not the tool maker but the meaning maker - We make sense of our surroundings and ourselves. This video lifts my thinking, I watch Chris Haden, the first Canadian Commander of the ISS, and he shows me that we are not just meaning makers, we are beauty makers. Truly if beauty is in the eye of the beholder then we cannot let this idea slip from our minds - we are not just driven to make meaning of ourselves and our world - we are driven to make ourselves beautiful and to make the world we live in beautiful too.
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