posts >> william > nikolai
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William
When was the last time you were inspired? I can only imagine what it must have been like to be in a family during America’s westward expansion. What would it have been like to be with Christopher Columbus when he discovered the ‘new world’, or to have stood and heard JFK rally us to soar among the stars? It has been far to long since we in America have been inspired to reach out and explore.
Perhaps we have lost a sense of exploration since most of the dry land mass has been explored and largely settled since westward expansion. I believe however, that there is so much more to reach for. The mystique of the deep sea lead to such works as “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” and our past inability to discover its secrets gave rise to myth and lore. But now we have the technology to go deeper, to understand more, and to reach again for possibility, if only we were inspired to do so.
Exploration is an end in itself. There is no telling what advancements may come, if any, from the exploration of the deep sea, or space for that matter. If past investment in exploration is any clue, we have a lot to gain from such an endeavor. But even more then the technological possibilities, we have a lot to gain from inspiration’s possibilities. It is unifying in a time when red and blue states and have and have-nots divide our nation. It pays economic dividends in a time of economic hardship. But most of all, it ignites the curiosity in a nation founded from curiosity. With so much going wrong, we need to hope for what could be. I’d like to be inspired once again, how about you?
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Nikolai
Most people would agree that knowledge is important in the way we live. The way to gain knowledge is to learn, and the way to learn is to explore. Exploring is essential to our existence. Had it not been for Columbus’s journey most of you readers would not be here today. The risk was evident, failure and even death. But the reward was much greater. And luckily for us Christopher Columbus saw the possibilities that lay ahead. He saw the future; he saw the hope for something more.
I feel that the emphasis of exploring is being lost in our lifetime. We’re more concerned about war, famine, poverty, oil prices and perhaps rightfully so, but what if the answer to all of these problems is “out there”, obtainable if someone were to just imagine and take a risk. The fact is we’ll never know what’s out there unless we try to physically explore. We can hypothesize all day long but in the end what good is that? It’s just a guess.
There is what seems to be an infinite amount of space that has yet to be discovered, planets that are unvisited, and not to mention a whole other world that exists below us; the sea. Maybe we don’t know what we’re expecting to find, but we’ll never know until we get there. Perhaps the cure for cancer is in outer space somewhere, maybe an idea for alternate fuel is in the deep sea. The possibilities are endless.
