Keeping the rock in rocket science… my way of paying homage to our incredible progress as a species, from throwing stones to launching missiles: we’ve evolved! (heh, heh).

As I imagine it, one of the very first technological feats we undertook as dexterous, clever primates was probably to pick up a stone and throw it, most likely to kill or maim another living creature, fellow human or otherwise. And everything we have launched since, from spears, arrows, catapults and cannon balls, to bullets, bombs, missiles and rockets, are the direct descendants of that initial projectile. All those accounts in the Old Testament of undesirable members of the community being stoned by the rest of the population find their present-day parallel not only in the continued practice of such acts of stoning, but likewise in the bombing of cities and people. Testimony of the great strides we’ve made (again, heh).

As for launching rockets into space, sic itur ad astra, this begs the question of whether, having all but ruined our own world, we won’t just go ruin any other place we happen to discover. Better to head inward than outward or upward. Better to make peace in our own home, within our own mind/body phenomenon (by practicing Vipassana meditation, for example!)… than to continue projecting our ever-unsatisfactory desire to dominate others. The sermon ends here and the countdown begins: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4….