Fifty Years of Space Travel

When my older daughter turned ten, a friend of mine from church gave her a birthday card and congratulated her: “You’ve made ten complete trips through space, around the sun! Isn’t that exciting?”

And I thought, it is kind of exciting, when you put it in those terms.

We are all space travelers, here on our amazing, sophisticated space ship. We cover astonishing distances, but the sheer scale of the distances we travel is so incomprehensible that we focus instead on the nearby things that are easier to wrap our minds around.

This year, I will turn fifty. My goofy brother-in-law is already planning a funeral for my youth, complete with black clothing and a casket and much wailing. But I plan to celebrate. I have come a long way, in fifty years – 29 billion miles! Fifty complete trips through space, around the sun.

My space travel adventure has included all of the best elements of such stories: good friends, supportive mentors, unexpected encounters—even conflict and enemies, obstacles and betrayals and villains, each one a greater challenge than the last. I have gone through miniature versions of all three acts—setup, confrontation, and resolution—as I work my way through the rising action toward the climax. I haven’t always been as heroic as I would like to be, but that’s part of a good story, too—especially the part where you get up, dust yourself off, and keep going.

It’s interesting to me that I am turning fifty in 2020. This year has been full of challenges worthy of even the most stalwart band of adventurers, and we’re only halfway through. It’s only act 2. This is the point, in most stories, where the heroes have suffered multiple setbacks, where they are most discouraged and doubting the outcome. Stories matter to us because they make sense of moments like this; we map the three-act structure onto our lives and say, “We cannot stop now. Now is the moment to regroup; to give ourselves a pep talk; to remind ourselves that we can do this, we must do this, there is no one else who can do this”—and then we go on.

There may be more setbacks ahead; 2020 may spill over into 2021. Not all stories are well-written or well-paced, and this one may drag on a bit. We may not yet be nearing the end. But hang in there, fellow space travelers. Bind your wounds, mourn your losses, and then pick yourselves up and keep walking. Remember the lessons the stories have taught you: stick with your friends, work together, be humble, be brave, and be kind to strangers.

Be ready. The next 584 million miles could be tough ones. But when you think you can’t go anymore, step out into the darkness and look up, at that incomprehensibly massive black sky spangled with glittering stars, and think about how far you’ve already come.