Saints and Astronauts
The Quiet Work of Becoming A Person of Character
It’s been one month since Artemis II splashed down back on earth and, while I haven’t had a chance to explore all the photos, interviews, and footage as much as my space-loving heart would like to, here is one essay and one podcast episode that I dove all the way into:
Essay: They Orbited the Moon But I Keep Coming Back to the Crew by Priya Parker — an essay she wrote here on Substack about how they worked together as a team
The Daily Podcast: Your Kids Asked the Artemis Astronauts Questions. They Answered by Rachel Abrams for The New York Times
The day Artemis II flew behind the moon, I watched the quiet C-Span coverage for six hours straight. There was a lot going on in our life that week and I decided that my one and only job was to watch the moon slowly turn dark. The image on the screen was mostly the same all day long, with only occasional wide-angle views of mission control. Sometimes there was no sound at all as the astronauts simply did their work.
As I watched, I thought of how almost everything good lacks a fast-track.
This coverage was the inspiration behind this week’s episode of The Next Right Thing: Don’t Rush It (which you can listen to, watch, or read right here.)
Later this same week, Rachel Abrams from The Daily podcast sat down with the crew—Victor Glover, Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch and Reid Wiseman—to ask them questions sent in by kids from all over the country about their ten day mission around the moon.
After listening to several delightful voices of the children who called in wanting to be astronauts, Rachel Abrams summarized several of their questions in this way:
“What would you tell a child about the qualities that allow you to do what you do, to be astronauts? And how a child might cultivate those?"
As I listened to their answers, I realized the Venn diagram of the qualities it takes to be an astronaut and to be a person of character is one full circle.
Here’s what they said and how their answers reveal the wonder and mystery of being a scientist, a saint, and a soul minimalist.
