Astronomy keeps my demons laughing like wee girls on the playground. Whenever a daunting challenge rears its unreasonable, and oftentimes emotionally costly, head, I can look up at the sky and put myself back in perspective as a rather insignificant stardust pollinator bringing remnants of the heavenly bodies from one place to another.
My favorite recourse for self-comfort is a site called the Astronomy Picture of the Day. This site is an old friend to which my mentor from grad school, Dr. Dale Smith, introduced me. I was having a particularly bad day with some irrelevant classroom drama, so he called me into his office where he pulled up the Web page and asked me to take my time reading the description of the astronomical event featured that day. That simple exercise of putting aside my earthly mindbuggery to appreciate that beautiful photo is a coping mechanism I still use today.
Since that time, I've expanded my appreciation of this site to not only crutch the days of my sorrows, but to bookmark my joys with a nod of thanks to the cosmos. What follows here is a list of important dates in my life that APoD helped me engrave with a visual reality:
July 25, 1998: My brother married a righteous chick.
August 9, 1999: I broke off an engagement that was not meant to be.
December 3, 1999: Madeline Kahn died.
December 31, 1999: Spent the night of Y2K in a pub in Northern Ireland trading stories with hilarious local folks and my Irish friends Henry and Tom.
April 5, 2001: Successfully defended my Masters thesis.
August 28, 2001: Taught my first university course as a full instructor.
February 2, 2003: Crystal and my Friendship anniversary. Columbia shuttle explodes.
November 26, 2004: Decided to move my life to Oregon to pursue a career in the non-profit sector.
June 15, 2005: Closest friend of our family, Bill Carr, dies after a long battle with cancer. Anne Bancroft dies.
June 17, 2005: Dad follows Bill.
July 1, 2005: Set off with what I could shove in the Buick and drove to Oregon with Russ.
July 10, 2005: Turbo and my Friendship Anniversary.
October 1, 2005: Moved to Portland from mid-Oregon.
November 21, 2005: Began my career as non-profit sector's #1 fan.
February 28, 2007: Met J.
July 15, 2007: Met Pixie.
March 29, 2008: Saw Asylum Street Spankers for the first time and partied with the band.
June 20, 2008: Said yes.
Of course, when Keith Richards dies or if John McCain wins, I'll have to add more coping dates to the list, but for now...
1 comment:
Dude, if McCain wins, I'm going to pack everything in my Saturn and try driving there. Or perish in the attempt.
By the way, every now and then when I explain a constellation or some other heavenly phenomenon, I explain that 'my old buddy Bennett gave me a private show at an observatory once....' =0)
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