Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Drawing lines in the sky


Orbital dance
London, ON, March 2011

The bright streak is a long-exposure shot of the International Space Station flying over my house. The less-bright streak is the Space Shuttle Discovery after she undocked for the last time on her final flight. Like her sister ships Atlantis and Endeavour, she's now being decommissioned in preparation for life as a museum exhibit. Glorious, no?

Yet on this cold night, she was in her element, orbiting at 28,000 km/h in the environment for which she was expressly designed. She was only a dot from where we stood on the sidewalk, but what an amazing dot she was, and what an amazing line she drew across the sky to inspire our kids to shoot for their own stars.

Your turn: What, or who, inspires you? Why?

One more thing: To share your own favorite-photo-of-the-year, click here. It's a Thematic extravaganza, and it runs through next Monday.

3 comments:

Jan Timmons said...

'What, or who, inspires you? Why?'
Ti's posts do, at 'Element 22'. Her temps are about 10'f lower than ours today in the dark winter days of Alaska, and she inspires me to push my own (fearful) boundaries.

And I'm hoping that your posts will inspire and help me, too. Even with the melancholy feelings for my previous work on the space shuttle.

Thank you.

theMuddledMarketPlace said...

mostly the forgotten people inspire me

the people who somehow manage to drag up every single last ounce of resolve and energy and who get through to the end of a day when, if I had Their Days/ their lives/ their companions/ their homes/ workplace/ collegues/ family....i'd cut and run, somewhere anywhere...or stay in bed.

they don't. they get up, give themselves a shake and get on with the day

without even thinking i could name five or six folk, who may never be famous explorers or adventures...but when they get to where ever we go and meet who ever we meet, i hope they get a MASSIVE hug...and a long peaceful eternity. they inspire me so much

Anonymous said...

*Scrapes frost off computer screen*

Yeah, it's -40 here in the hollow of winter's elbow. Which I'm pretty sure is locked around my neck. Either way, it's always an inspiration to read your words, Carmi. Whether (weather) I'm resurfacing for a breath of fresh air from your side of the world, or just stopping by to enjoy the community of creative, artistic folks who populate this medium- you never fail to inspire thought.

Also, thanks, Jan. It's worth excavating the good, the healthy, the organic, the authentic- just to be in company such as yours.

*screen frosts over*