October 16th, 2021 |
By Steve Wolfe, BE President & Co-Founder
Fifty-five years ago, William Shatner stirred the souls of millions on a weekly basis with uplifting messages ‘to boldly go where no man has gone before.’ Many of us would hold the Star Trek message and vision in our hearts and commit ourselves to bringing about the future portrayed in the series. That future is one where nations will have resolved their geopolitical differences, and have figured out how to provide all citizens of the world with basic needs. It is also a future that achieved the ability to traverse the solar system and creating new homes in space to the benefit of all humankind.
On October 13, William Shatner once again spoke words that stirred our souls. Only this time they were unscripted spontaneous words of someone who has touched outer space for the first time and was humbled by the awesomeness of it. With his Blue Origin crewmates celebrating ecstatically all around him popping champagne bottles, Shatner remained introspective, expressing to his benefactor, Jeff Bezos, his most heartfelt reaction to what he had just experienced.
“I hope I never recover. I hope I can maintain what I feel now. It’s so much larger than me & life; it hasn’t got to do with the little green & blue orb. But with the enormity & quickness & suddenness of life & death. Oh my god, it’s unbelievable.”
No Captain Kirk bravado. Shatner said that everyone needs to have this experience. And I could not agree more. This is what my good friend Frank White has been saying for decades. Once we have that experience of seeing the whole Earth from space, we can never see the world quite the same way again.
Shatner’s heartfelt words this week touched me more than any of his many Start Trek monologs. He was finally one of us, touching the heavens for the first time and overcome by the emotion of it.
I believe it is important for all of us similarly awaken to the grandeur of space, and with that realization we must get to work in preparing our way to becoming citizens not just of this Earth, but of the regions that await us beyond our atmosphere.
