'Risk Is Our Business'

Happy Independence Day and all my hopes go to the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery; the ship lifted off minutes ago.

Fireworks: my Aunt Alma--whose eighty-fifth (!) birthday is today--said that she wouldn't "go up there," especially after the ill fate of the Columbia. I countered that that's why they didn't ask her (and probably why she's eighty-five).

It frequently occurs to me that people who become astronauts (or any other type of explorer) must have a certain type of mindset: a gambling nature, that the perceived benefits are worth the risks. I'm not that type of person--or perhaps it is that I have become less so in my middle age. I understand and respect it, however, simply because it is we less adventurous sorts who are the beneficiaries of the more swashbuckling nature of our exploring brethren.

So...Fair Winds, Discovery, and come home safe.