After my son left home for college and marriage, the detente that existed in my home was upset by the lack of parity in the masculine and feminine genders. In short, my wife and daughter outvoted me at the video rental store on a weekly basis. We watched a lot of chick flicks in those days.
Searching through the cupboard a few days ago, I came across the DVD of my daughter’s favorite all time movie. And I was reminded of a short passage in the movie that seems pertinent to these days.
A lot of my time lately has been spent in wrangling discussions about writing down plans for the future which are contentious and ill defined. Probably explains why I have not been updating the blog much lately.
Anyway, just in a wistful mode, here is the pop culture snippet that has been on my mind recently:
“I. Q.” Paramount Picture, 1994; starring Meg Ryan, Walter Matthau, Tom Robbins
Ed Walters (Tom Robbins) says:
“Any journey in life, if not done for human reasons with understanding and love would be empty and lonely. It’s something worth remembering as nuclear-powered spacecraft may soon make the ancient dream of traveling to the edge of the universe and back a reality. The source of that power is the very source that fuels the stars themselves and in doing so fuels our imaginations and our dreams.”
Yes we are just a bunch of atoms. Star stuff as Carl Sagan once described it. Pity there are a few loose atoms in the corridors of power at the moment.
Yes, great vision Mr. Wayne. Actually the reason of life for humans is satisfied if he returns to a well with their actions. All we seek to do good to receive another well. The exceptions to this rule are inhuman. The human being is the beginning and the end. The exact mathematical, and engineering of precision not serve if they do not smile. Nothing is perfect if it is done without love and does not trigger a pleasant feeling in people. The numbers serve only if they really add something to the people. We can build machines, but we’re not machines, we are alive and vital ingredient in life is love. Love is not just feeling, is act. If we want to bring life to other planets should take love. If we want to sustain life, to keep our love. Love is essential, the rest is consequence. We explore the universe, because we love to do this. The modes are a consequence.
My favorite is the following quote:
“Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, or a new country.”….Quote by Anais Nin.
Back in my traveling days, I used to watch movies in my hotel room instead of drinking my meal money and per diem away like so many others did. I never watched “I.Q.”, but the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) has a section devoted to memorable quotes for every movie in their database.
This quote from “I.Q.”…
Catherine Boyd: [expressing her disbelief in Ed’s scientific credentials] “He is a mechanic!”
Albert Einstein: “I was a clerk in a patent office. Faraday was a carpenter. Isaac Newton was an insurance salesman.”
Catherine Boyd: [as she leaves] “Isaac Newton was *not* an insurance salesman.”
…leads into this quote from “Ratatouille”…
Anton Ego: “Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.”
…but since you speak of journeys, I’ll include the following quote from “Dances With Wolves”…
John Dunbar: “We are trying for a baby.”
Kicking Bird: “No waiting?”
John Dunbar: “No waiting.”
Kicking Bird: “I was just thinking that of all the trails in this life, there are some that matter most. It is the trail of a true human being. I think you are on this trail, and it is good to see.”
…and conclude with the following quote from “The Sandlot”…
“The Babe”: “Let me tell you something kid; Everybody gets one chance to do something great. Most people never take the chance, either because they’re too scared, or they don’t recognize it when it spits on their shoes.”
Motorcycling sometimes puts you on unfamiliar pathways; it’s what you do and how you respond to the unfamiliarity that sometimes makes all the difference in the world.
indeed, quotes from movies are good inspiration. sometimes it teaches to learn something we never leaned yet. but real life is to far from a movie character, how i wish i would be. let’s go back to reality. somebody have been torturing me everyday.
what said Abraham Lincoln?
“And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.”
From your last paragraph, it seems like you are considering using nuclear reactors in space. I was one of many who operated nuclear reactors at sea in the navy.
Imagine about 100 mostly 20 somethings with a few teenagers and a few oldsters (late 30’s) to supervise; all crammed into a steel tube for weeks at a time.
If the navy can provide nuclear propulsion in its submarines this way, it should be possible to do so in space.