Space and the Sea; We still have a long way to go!

By T. R. Shaw Jr.

Space X 9 Falcon Rocket lifts off from Launch Pad 39A at
Kennedy Space Center, Saturday, February 18 carrying a resupply
mission to the International Space Station.  This is the same pad which
launched Apollo 11 to the Moon and most of the Space Shuttle Flights.
This is also where our Voyage to Mars will begin.

            

            Being a former Navy Officer, I have to return to the sea occasionally for a re-baptism of salt water and to think deeply about life with warm sand between my toes. Apparently it’s something in my DNA.  

When you are on a beach it seems easier to entertain deep cerebral thoughts you don’t otherwise have.

            I recently visited the Atlantic coast of Florida.  On this trip we stayed a few miles South of Cape Canaveral, an area known as the “Space Coast.”  The Kennedy Space Center is ground zero for space exploration and Launch Pad 39A is where Apollo 11 began man’s first trip to another celestial body.  This is where our Mission to “Occupy Mars” will begin.

That same pad just launched the Space X Falcon 9 mission to resupply the International Space Station and became the first time a reusable rocket booster “relanded” near the pad.  We are now recycling our space hardware which is a good thing!

I had hoped to see the launch, along with thousands of other people on the beach that day, all of us looking North at 10:01 A.M., on a crystal clear Florida day, but it was a “no-go” at the last second.  Unfortunately, we were airborne on our way home, the next day when it finally lifted off.  I missed seeing history by twenty-four hours.  I can’t get a check-off from my bucket list of seeing a live launch.

            Getting back to pondering, I’ve found it fascinating that our Space Port is so close to the ocean.  It’s there for a number of reasons, primarily safety and latitude.  But the comparisons to space and the sea dominated my thoughts that day.

            Both the sea and space are, and have been frontiers of great exploration.  While we attempt to master space, have we mastered the sea?  The answer is absolutely no!

            Throughout our human existence, mankind has attempted to master the sea.  We’ve always wondered what’s over the horizon and have been eager to get there.  For most of our human existence we have been sea-faring people.  The great age of exploration involved great risks on the high seas; long voyages with unknown dangers, dangers we couldn’t possibly imagine.  The sea is a powerful force to be reckoned with.

As we now move into a new age of space-faring, we face the same unknowns and dangers as our ancestors who first crossed the oceans.

            The closest anyone has come to “mastering” the sea is likely Great Britain.  For years the tiny island nation stretched out across the globe, colonizing on, and near every continent.  For years, it was said that the Sun never set on the British Empire and it was true.  They became master sea-farers, but could never truly master the sea.

            Water is a powerful force.  Tidal waves destroy miles of coastlines in seconds.  We are presently witnessing what a deluge of water is doing to California and the threat of rising ocean levels may see much of our Earthly coastal habitat disappear in the distant future. 

Humans foolishly believe we are masters of our domain, but water is something we will never master.  We can control it and redirect it temporarily, but eventually water always wins. 

In our quest for life in space, our benchmark has always been water.  Where there is water, there is life we hypothesize.         

As I walked down the beach and looked back at my footprints behind me, I watched them disappear with about two wave sweeps.  To me that was a metaphor of just how insignificant we are next to the power of water.

I was excited to learn that NASA wants to return to the Moon soon to begin an outpost in preparation for the Mars mission, it’s becoming more science than science fiction.  In fact NASA wants to send a manned mission into lunar orbit in 2018 on the 50^th Anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission which first circled the Moon.  It’s a bold first step to getting back to manned space flight and may happen if we can muster the will to do it.  I hope we can.

While we look to the heavens to break free from the “surly bonds of Earth” we cannot forget that the ocean still holds the greatest mysteries of our planet.  While we attempt to master space, we must continue attempting to master the sea.  The salvation of this planet will likely come from the sea, not necessarily from space. 

We have to keep exploring both.  We will never fully understand the Cosmos until we fully understand the “Inner Space” of our Oceans.  Our future is ironically tied to the understanding of both frontiers.  It’s time we got back in the game of exploration.

T. R. Shaw Jr. is CEO and co-founder of Shaw Communication in Battle Creek, Michigan.  You can read his blog, The Reluctant R(L)eader at www.read-mor.blogspot.com

Jump; Take the Leap of Faith to Achieve Your Life of Abundance

Jump;

Take the Leap of Faith to Achieve Your Life of Abundance

By Steve Harvey

Harper Collins

196 Pages

"That moment of crisis isn't happening to you---it's happening for you."

           Steve Harvey is a household figure and a television icon, but he’s one of those “celebrities” who snuck up on you.  He’s been around a long time, you know about him, but you may not have known his entire story which he lays out in his new motivational memoir, Jump.

            Before I get too far into this review, I have to say I’m a little jealous.  Harvey’s book is a model for the book I’m writing, entitled Defy the Immediate.  In some way’s he’s “stolen my thunder” but I also have many unique stories which hopefully you’ll be reading soon.  I'm not as high profile, but my stories are just as compelling.  I’m in search of an agent and publisher and I can use this book to help get mine out there.  In many ways his book is perfectly timed to parallel mine and something I can use as a model and great example!  Harvey doesn’t know it, but he’s given me something to shoot for.

            I’ve come to know Harvey through television and his public persona.  I really didn’t know much about his background until reading this book.  I discovered we are both Mid-American Conference brethren, he went to Kent State and I went to Central Michigan.  He tells the story of his less-than-stellar performance at KSU where he eventually “flunked out” but that experience opened other avenues and galvanized his faith to pursue his real dreams of someday being on television. 

Faith in God, confidence and self-motivation toward his destiny “jumps” out of this book.  He unashamedly lays out his witness to the power of God which took him from flunking out, losing a good job with Ford Motor Company, working several others dead end jobs, then “jumping” to pursue entertainment and comedy.  He lived from gig to gig in his car until things started to fall into place and God led him to his destiny and he realized his “gift” that everyone is born with.  It wasn’t easy and he didn’t become a celebrity overnight. 

Harvey waffled in and out of jobs and was selling insurance when the dream of entertainment and comedy forced him to jump.  He went from an unfulfilling existence to pursuing his dreams with an unbridled passion.  As he quoted Einstein, “Imagination is Everything,” it’s a preview of the future.

He shares stories of pursuing comedy and taking any gig, anywhere.  Often, he would drive hundreds of miles and sleep in his car.  He was often tired and hungry, but his drive was overpowering.  He’d make enough in a show to get some food and gas for the car and move on to the next gig.  He set up a phone line in his parents’ home connecting it to an answering machine which he checked often.  That was his “home” office. 

One day he was in the South he got a call to do a show at the Apollo Theater in Harlem which would be televised with other major stars performing.  This was to be his big break and what he’d been shooting for.  Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough money to get a plane ticket to New York and not enough time to drive.  Fortunately, he got a gig in a club in Florida that night which paid him enough to get a plane ticket to New York the next day and he made it to the theater where he got his big television break.  Things greatly improved after that.

Along with success came responsibility and hard life lessons.  Newly married and after a series of great jobs and successes when things were going well in all aspects of his life, financially, professionally and beyond, he learned his accountant died suddenly.  He was deeply grieved at first to learn of the death of one his closest advisors.  However, the death revealed a terrible secret he never saw coming or knew about.  His accountant had failed to file and pay Harvey's taxes in more than seven years.  

Harvey was devastated.  He owed more than eight-figures in back taxes and penalties when they figured it all out.  His new financial advisor deduced it would take at least twelve years get out of that hole.  As a person of great faith, Harvey went to work immediately, working harder than he ever had, living under the fear of losing everything and possibly going to jail.  He took every contract that came along, even if it was less than what he was worth.  Everyone around him feared he would burnout, but he was driven.  He humbly regressed to his days of living from paycheck to paycheck out of his car, but his faith in God carried him through and he made it back.

Throughout his career, he had been an entrepreneur.  He invested and built comedy clubs for aspiring comedians and wisely made other good investments.  The opportunity came to sell some of those assets and that put him within reach, not entirely getting out of debt.  The remainder of the debt was manageable.  God lead him though this dark time again and he never doubted God’s plan in all this.

   

            He goes into a great deal of detail on his experiences and humiliation with the Miss Universe pageant where a team mistake messed up the crowning of Miss Columbia when she was actually first runner up.  It created a social media firestorm and Harvey became the butt of late night jokes and even faced death threats.  But, he took full responsibility for that mishap, even though others would have “handled” it later.  He summoned the courage to do the right thing and take responsibility for mistake on the spot.  He couldn't have lived with himself if he hadn't.   The furor that ensued for weeks would have destroyed a lesser man.  He alienated the entire Latin world by setting it straight after Miss Columbia “won” but his tenacity got him through it and everyone is better off for what happened.  It is a great life lesson in courage, humility and honesty.

The title of his book Jump, is his personal philosophy.  In order to reach our destiny and use our gift, we have to jump and take chances even when it doesn’t feel right.  We cannot stand on the cliff of life and watch it go by.  If we don’t jump, our parachutes will never open.  Everything that happened to him was a jump of faith.  He lays out the case that you cannot move forward in life by standing still, whether it’s leaving a job you hate, getting out of a bad relationship or dealing with a life event out of your control.  You have to jump if you want to truly live and not just exist. 

Jump is full of motivation and life stories that will make the reader truly Jump after reading it.  It gives you a whole new perspective of someone who now appears to “have it all.”  His story and message is riveting.  He is not where he is today by luck or chance.  He worked hard and stayed faithful to his passion and idealism.  Something that runs counter to today’s “I want it now” mentality.

I first learned of his Jump message in a viral video he did with his Family Feud audience following a show taping in early 2016.  I’m really not sure if it’s a carefully planned and crafted promotion for his book or a spontaneous talk which led to this book, but it really doesn’t matter, his message does.  I encourage you to watch this video and read this book.  If you don’t Jump at some point in your life you are not living, but merely existing.

Every Successful Person Has Jumped, Family Feud, January, 2016

Take the Jump and read this book.  It’s the motivation you need for the difficulties you are presently facing.  Few books have inspired me more than this one has.