Story Musgrave Speech

Picture of the Day for 4/17/2014. The Clark Planetarium held a fund raising gala tonight and the keynote speaker was Story Musgrave, a celebrated space shuttle astronaut who has seven graduate degrees. Needless to say, he's smart. And like most every other astronaut I've met, a bit of a flirt. When I approached him at the reception prior to the banquet and warned him that I had cold hands when he reached out to shake my hand, he replied "I'll take care of that." I love flirty astronauts.


Story's speech was fabulous! He actually addressed the adults in the crowd and not the youth. It was such a refreshing change since at events like this you usually hear "children are our future, blah, blah, blah." It's true, they are our future, but I'm still very much interested in crafting an interesting and productive life right now. He talked about how all our life experiences, no matter how mundane, are valuable. He grew up on a farm and observed how the mechanical skills he acquired from working on farm equipment as a boy came in handy when he was called upon to repair the Hubble telescope several hundred miles above the earth forty years later. He also spoke about deliberately charting a course and how we should all consider tomorrow, April 18, as the launch of the life we want to create/live and to figure out who we want to be. 




After Story's speech, there was a star party outside where several telescopes were trained on Jupiter. I was able to see the planet through a view finder after I finally figured out that even though I'm right-handed, my left eye is dominant. I was totally geeking out over seeing Jupiter and its moons through a telescope.


All-in-all, it was the perfect evening for a nerdy space fanatic.