FYI:
http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Feb/02032003/monday/25839.asp

This was good, also. I have forwarded this on to several friends and family members. Ray lives on in the hearts, minds, and imagery of his legion of fans.

"Kaleidoscope" and "Rocket Man" - so true! This (tragic) moment is captured as he has done so many times before on so many topics. Mr. Bradbury's indomitable spirit must be aching terribly!

Before leaving to teach this morning (7 a.m.), my younger son -age 4 1/2- showed me a sheet of stickers he had received for doing some activitiy in pre-k. He gave me one to wear showing an especially animated and colorful caricature(I have it on as I type) so my "students could see it."

Then a "from the mouths of babes" moment unfolded. I asked him off-handedly which one he would like to wear, not even knowing what the sheet included. He looked at the stickers and pulled off a very lively picture of a multi-colored rocket blasting off. He said, "I am going to wear this one. Dad, the people in the spaceship were really brave weren't they?"

I was caught completely off guard by where this innocent sticker selection had gone, as I was preparing to hurry out the door. I told him they were brave and very good people.

As he was putting his sticker on, he said, "When I am all grown up, I want to be brave, too. They were space pioneers, right?"

I said where did you get that word "pioneers"?

He responded "Oh, I just heard it. And they were in space so I guess that's what they were?"

Needless to say, a child's words picked me up from what has been a gloom of the past couple of days.

God revealed his worlds to these 7 "brave pioneers" and not just over the 16 days of their mission. They understood the beauty of the earth, its lands and waters, the brilliance of the sun rising and setting, and the depths of space, lit only by the stars. Their gifted personalities and unique spirits had been guided from the time each was a very young child.

C-Span played an incredible 45 minute interview with (recorded 1/29/03) this team of astronauts that revealed the stuff of which they were made. Simply stated "the best of the best from all walks of life!"

Bless them, their families, and all within their countless circles of friends.

And maybe in honor of each of the 5 men and 2 women crew of Columbia, we should take just a moment out of our too busy lives and quietly make a wish......!

Thought of Ray's "Kaleidoscope"...when I saw footage of the re-entry, the amateur one that looked like a falling 5-pointed star. Perhaps it was but a slight distortion of the camera lense.

But I deleted the posting, thought it was inappropriate...the tragedy too large. What do you do when fiction meets reality on such a scale....one poetic narrative... the other brutal? But there it is!

Do you still have your posting, Nard? Several other people remarked on this.

And bless your son too, fjpalumbo, for putting it so simply yet so brilliantly. It's kids like him that have kept me in teaching for 24 years....

[This message has been edited by lmskipper (edited 02-03-2003).]

Had forgoten about "Kaleidoscope." Thanks for reminding me.

[This message has been edited by lmskipper (edited 02-03-2003).]

[This message has been edited by lmskipper (edited 02-03-2003).]

Dandelion: No. I deleted it before sending it. Actually I began it by saying ...sorry if I offend anyone by this, but it reminded me of Kaleidoscope...But then I thought, after finishing the post, that Ray's story is a poetic narrative, set in the framework of fiction. But...here was the terrible video and terrible story....Too difficult to think of it... as related to a storyteller's prose.

Okay, this is weird. A British astronaut who was in Russia saw the pictures on TV but, of course, failed to understand the narration. He believed it must be footage of a meteorite hitting Earth's atmosphere. Not until he heard the news in an English-speaking place did he put it together with the pictures he'd seen and realized he had watched the destruction of a craft on which were crew members well-known to him!

When I was 11 I was fascinated with the story of Kaleidescope, I remember also gathering in my Granparents living room when they walked on the Moon. While living in Park City in 86 my Brother Joels yells woke me in the morning from a late night after work to the Challenger disaster. Ironicly he was the one that called early to tell me to quickly turn on the news with Columbia, and as a Family we followed the progess of the day. In Kaleidescope Ray provides so many alternative views of space, the harsh, swift unforgiving reality that a small object can do. An insulation chip with Challenger, "possible ice" currently with Columbia, but the most defining moment in this one story is the mention of the Mother to the boy by at the sight of the falling star to make a wish. We are all made of the material of the stars, I can only see with the hope of a fledgling child that we continualy strive to persue those pioneers path. We owe it to their children to press on to the brave course ahead. We will all be better for it. Mr. Bradbury has seered the possibilities, filled with immense dimension he populated Mars, and even has his own crater on the moon "Dandelion" to be exact. Heroes should be honored dreams fulfilled.
Mars is there lets shoot for the Moon, and reach the Stars.

[This message has been edited by uncle (edited 02-08-2003).]