Aaron

I don’t like to share Substack articles, for, well reasons. But this is a great one and really encapsulates what I’ve been feeling for the entire #Artemis2 #ArtemisII experience.

The whole time from launch to splashdown I’ve been feeling pretty emotional about it and I really couldn’t understand why. The just general awe and inspiration I’ve felt from the crew. The sense of wonder and exploration that I’ve not felt since I was a kid. It made me feel insignificant in all the right ways, not in the way that I don’t matter, but in reminding me that the scope of my problems can feel huge and be simultaneously nothing in the grand scheme of things. I didn’t know I needed this mission, but I am coming out of it a better person because of that crew.

To sum the article up, this statement resonated with me the most but I highly recommend reading the entire thing.

the feeling of watching something go right and realizing, somewhere deep in your body, that you had forgotten things could go right. Because when something actually goes right, when the people in charge do their jobs well, speak in full sentences, make decisions that protect people instead of endangering them, the reaction can feel strangely emotional

https://lizplank.substack.com/p/artemis-ii-is-competency-porn-and

#Space #NASA

Artemis II Is Competency Porn and We Are Starving For It

girls will be like i needed this and it's just four nerds in space.

Airplane Mode with Liz Plank
Apr 12 at 4:13amWeb
Show threadSherri W (SyntaxSeed)Apr 12
@therealahall This is right on the money. Thank you for sharing. 🎯
Show threadAaronApr 12
@syntaxseed You’re welcome!
Show threadErosdiscordiaApr 12
@therealahall This is such a fantastic article, and captures SO MANY of the things I was feeling this past week!

I like this part about awe. It's something I've been trying to center in my own fiction, for reasons given here -- that I didn't even know were true until I read this:

"Psychologist Barbara Fredrickson’s research tells us that emotions like awe and wonder do not just feel good in the moment. They literally broaden our thinking and build long-term psychological resilience. People who regularly experience awe are more creative, more connected, and less susceptible to the feeling that everything is about to fall apart. Awe is a biological reset button, and four humans went to the moon and pushed it for all of us, and your body knew what to do with that before you maybe had words for it."
Show threadErosdiscordiaApr 12
@therealahall And this:

"Earth is 4.5 billion years old. Humans have survived sub zero temperatures, plagues, and every catastrophe a universe indifferent to our survival could produce. We have also painted caves, written symphonies, and this week sent a NICU nurse’s husband to the moon, where he named a crater after her and cried while his crewmates held him. That is the species. That is what we actually are when we are trying."

🥺​
Show threadErosdiscordiaApr 12
@therealahall What I think is so fantastic about this mission is that it felt very immediately inspiring.

Like, I'll probably never circle the moon myself, despite being into space since I was a little kid. I'm alright with that.

But I'm also not just living vicariously through other people, NASA astronauts whose lives matter more than mine or anything like that.

The vibe of that crew was not that they mattered and we didn't. Inclusion means ALL of us. That we're all beautiful, that we ALL matter, and that my little space stories matter, and so do the babies in the NICU, and the people who tighten bolts on the spacecraft, and it's everyone on the planet, not any one country.

Because we're all here on this shining rock, and that we're living through all this crap and still reaching for beauty, that MATTERS.
Show threadErosdiscordiaApr 12
@therealahall I think we've all developed this psychological carapace of believing deep down that nothing matters, as a way of reigning in the ten years or so of trauma that All This Stuff has caused. That's, well, it's PTSD. Maybe even a form of cultural CPTSD.

And the awe is like our ecstasy therapy.
Show threadAaronApr 12
@valentine My one “regret in life” is that I won’t be here to experience the future of space travel. I’ve been drawn to space since being a child and I know I’ll also never get to go to space, it has a romantic quality to it for me.
Show threadErosdiscordiaApr 12
@therealahall I hear you there. I wish I could live another 100 years to see what we get up to.