A Tonne of Science and Soul

Perseverance…

Lands on Mars!

I remember hearing the word Martian when I was younger. It pretty much meant outer space to me, something alien at the edge of the galaxy…

Last week I watched the NASA team land Perseverance out there on the Red Planet. An incredible project bought to fulfilment. The lifetime's work of committed people coinciding to create such a warm and rich celebration of achievement, engineering, adventure and learning. Human accomplishment at its limits.

I’m so moved.

What particularly moves me is that this amazing discovery craft, though a machine, has the longing of so many human beings invested in it; longing to explore, to find out, to learn more of our history and our destiny. And to ultimately see if there was life on Mars billions of years back.

So in this sense it lives. Perseverance carries the heartbeat of our collective longing; it represents our spirit, like so many space explorations, of wanting to know more of who we are and why we are here. It stands on a threshold between science and mystery, between knowing and not knowing; it reminds us that the creation of meaning is somehow intwined with the path of our souls.

How are you creating meaning right now? How are you serving that sense in your life? 

I know how frustrating and de-habilitating it can feel when your working life goes off-line.

Are you headed in the right direction?

Neuroscience reveals to us that our nervous systems are greatly impacted by how we create meaning in our lives; our PEA, ‘positive emotional state’, is bought online when we feel part of a shared vision or dream, particularly in something larger than ourselves. The joy, the relief and exhilaration in the NASA control room, this only comes when decades of research, learning and boundary-breaking merge in the shared fulfilment of the dream.

We long to reach fulfilment, stages in life where we can stop and fully appreciate the moment that we are part of, where we can reflect on how we persevered when things were challenging, and we came through.

Of course, we don’t have to contribute to Nasa’s next project to feel fulfilment, yet we need to set our sights for a hopeful future.