How do you choose to live in this world? – Perhaps start by looking up …
In the last few decades, the daily or even hourly weather forecast is something we now take for granted. Our ability to predict it, to such a close degree, facilitates trade, travel, innovation and agriculture – along with many other factors that keep us alive! You just need to ask Siri.
Yet, this was not always so. As a matter of fact, in the 1860’s, when James Glaisher first posited his belief that with the right research and science, humanity would be able to predict the weather, his own peers retorted emphatically: “We are scientists, not fortune tellers.”
To quote Amazon.com: “Written in his own words, The Aeronauts (1871) chronicles Glaisher’s incredible flights and discoveries first hand, as well as his observations on those pioneers who came before and inspired him.” He has since gone on to inspire others.
However, his exploits (research) may have been thwarted had it not been destined that he would encounter an equally ‘mad’ colleague – fellow scientist, Henry Tracy Coxwell. On Sept. 5, 1862, the two men, equipped with pigeons, a compass and thermometers, took to the skies and broke the world record for the highest any human had been in a balloon (37,000 ft. – 8,000 ft. higher than the summit of Mount Everest).
As the Smithsonian Magazine stated: “Their voyages inspired art and philosophy, introduced new ways of seeing the world and transformed our understanding of the air we breathe.
Before the invention of the balloon, the atmosphere was like a blank slate on which fantasies and fears were projected. Philosophers speculated that the skies went on forever, while there were medieval tales of birds that were so large they could whisk human passengers into the clouds.”
In this way, almost 160 years later, a 2019 film adaptation was inspired by the book, in which the fictional character of Amelia Wren (the owner/pilot of the balloon) replaced Coxwell. On the balloon, Wren has the following words transcribed: “Surely the sky lies open, let us go that way.” As the film crescendos, Wren speaks the last words: “Look up, the sky lies open.”
Notwithstanding the many lessons that Glaisher’s efforts can impart to us, it is really this sentiment of the film that came to mind this afternoon. I was considering the plethora of negative comments and feelings that are being expressed by ‘leaders’ across all spheres, professionals, the working classes, religious groups, and even younger persons (who are usually very optimistic). This heaviness weighs on us all and can result in too many staring down, as they (we) shuffle one foot ahead of the other.
Maybe I’m just a daydreamer, but I’ve grown accustomed to looking at clouds, the sun, rainbows, the stars and even the dark clouds of rainstorms – and with particular interest in lightning. It has always given me energy. Thus, as the weather changed today and I caught myself staring at the sky, I recalled Glaisher’s story, the movie and the words of wisdom in that final scene: “We look to the skies – in the name of discovery – to find something new; to change the world. But, you don’t change the world simply by looking at it. You change it by the way you choose to live in it!”
In another musing, I will explore the concept of ‘choice’ but, for now, let us accept that everyone does indeed have one. Do we choose to listen to the taunts and disbelief of (some of) those whom we see as our ‘equals’/‘mentors’, when they tell us to keep our heads down? Or do we – as The Mighty Prowler put it (in reference to Nelson Mandela): choose to be someone who, when “looking out through the same ‘bars’ [as another, instead of] mud… see stars…”?
RH