It is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves.
Sweet are the uses of adversity.
--William Shakespeare


The Opportunity Rover's image of its heat shield on the Meridiani Planum taken December 21st.

This Christmas Eve of 2004 finds your humble blogger anxious for the year to conclude; a feeling I’m confidant others share.
Within this lurking gloom it is imperative that humanity’s shining spirit banish the furtive darkness while illuminating the shared dreams and hopes alive in our better souls.
This hopeful yearning is, really, all we have.
A life without hope or wishes or dreams is a life unlived.
Surely modern America’s greatest dirty little secret lies within the sad, mind-altered and pernicious lives of many of our wealthiest citizens.
Multiple gigantic homes, constant travel and endless possessions cannot erase the ironic emptiness inside these materially bloated souls; it seems, defying surgery, to be etched onto their very faces.
None of our lives are perfect and even within the nirvana of exponential western consumerism not one of our lives will ever be.
A certain imprisoned hero of mine would say, “It’s a good thing.”
This hungry human spirit can never be sated; a dream fulfilled leads inevitably to greater dreams.
‘Twas ever thus and will ever be.
So to every one of us this Christmas Eve, each a revolution in our every step, let us look to the stars with joyful hope for our shared destiny.


Cassini's image of Saturn and its moon Dione.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Mars Rover and Huygens-Cassini websites regularly provide awe-inspiring otherworldly vistas that previous generations could only dream about.
I would urge a visit and, in a hopeful vein, the crossing of fingers as NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, tonight, via the Cassini probe launch the Huygens vehicle on its 3-week descent onto the surface of the Saturnian moon, Titan.

Please accept my thanks for your readership and my best wishes for a merry and dream-filled Christmas!

ESA website
ISA website

Photos: JPL

- posted by Sean @ 1:53 PM