the context is decisive
While thinking about the news on the NASA budget today, I thought of the following story.
One time back in the 1960s, a NASA employee was roaming the halls of Kennedy Space Center. He came across a group of three janitors cleaning a restroom. Given his friendly nature, he stopped and approached the first one who seemed particularly dour.
“How’s it going?” he asked. In response, the first janitor growled “How do you think it is going? I’m stuck here cleaning toilets.”
Shocked, the employee decided to talk to the second janitor. This guy seemed a little more excited about what he was doing.
“Hey, what are you doing?” he asked. The second janitor looked at him with a spark of hope in his eye. “I’m feeding my family,” he said.
Intrigued, the employee decided to go say hi to the third janitor. This guy was humming and smiling while he was cleaning the restroom.
“Why are you so happy?” the employee asked. The third janitor replied with a grin “because I’m sending man to the moon!”
The message? The context is decisive. In our lives, we control how we react to and how we perceive the world.
The new NASA budget is likely to bring out lots of folks living from different contexts. Some of those will look like ”The Constellation Program shouldn’t be canceled” or “We are losing jobs in my state” or “We have no mission, no direction.”
I choose a different context: the new budget is an opportunity. An opportunity to transform our planet’s future in space. An opportunity to engage the global community on a journey of exploration.
That sounds like fun. What is your context?
7 Responses to “the context is decisive”
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M_Lorenger on February 2nd, 2010
Great view on this whole new paridigm. I will Share…
Tim846 on February 2nd, 2010
Thanks for posting this, Rivers! I agree wholeheartedly. I see this as a unique opportunity to choose our own path for the space program.
I know some folks near JSC met up tonight to discuss the future and what they want to see happening at NASA. I think that’s a great thing for everyone to do!
ZSpace on February 2nd, 2010
Great insight Rivers. Question: What context does newNASA need to create to see to it that what was presented in the POTUS budget will succeed…because I suspect there is an ‘already there’ context that has led to the failure of Cx that needs replacing.
CharlesBramucci on March 19th, 2010
Rivers, you obviously are in a conversation of the future and I love the context you have created here. It surely is the responsibility of all of us to generate the world from our word. And, given that that isn’t (at least for now) the nature of conversations in the world, I declare – therein make real – that you are a leader, a teacher and an inspiration.