Saturday, April 30, 2016

Last Recorded Words Aboard the Challenger Spacecraft-by Kim Michael


"Give Me Your Hand"

    by Kim Michael

    Copyright March 2015



On January 28, 1986, seventy-three seconds after lift off, the space shuttle Challenger exploded nine miles above the earth.  Despite thorough coverage of the accident by the media, the last few minutes inside the spacecraft were kept from the public.  Only years later would we learn that some of the members on board did not die in the explosion.  And in those last few, terrible moments; as the spacecraft came crashing to earth, the last unofficial words recorded in the cabin was a single voice saying, “Give me your hand.”

They were not words of anger or regret.  They were “human” words.  Words that resonate at the very heart of what it means to be human.  When I first heard this story it made a lasting impression on me, and it occurred to me that it is in the simple act of reaching out to one another that the true strength of what we are, and who we are, is the most meaningful. 

“Give me your hand,” reminds us in a way that no other words can, that we are never really complete as evolved creatures or master works of creation until we have the ability to connect with one another.   

And of all the words that could have been spoken that day, “Give me your hand” leaves us with the undeniable truth that the simplest of all human gifts-- are perhaps the most precious.   

We may one day traverse the galaxy.  Walk on distant planets and live in great cities beneath the ocean, but no matter how far we reach, no matter how high we climb, the one thing that will not change, and has not changed since the dawn of our existence, is our need for one another.    

When I think of the words, “ Give me your hand”, I am reminded of Luciano De Crescenzo, a famous Italian writer and director, who once said—"We are each of us, angels, with only one wing, and it is only when we embrace each other….that we can fly."
Kim Michael
Author

Friday, April 29, 2016

Michael's Picture

Michael's Picture- August 31, 2014



Michael brought me a picture; actually it was a gift he made for me when we visited last month.  He’s five, or rather, going on five, as he would say.  He is also my grandson. 


Unlike Michael, I never really knew either of my grand fathers.  One died when I was younger than Michael.  The other when I was twelve.  It’s funny what you remember; I don’t recall ever seeing either one of them smile.  To be honest, I don’t think either one was ever very interested in being my grandfather, of spending time with me, or just talking to me.  

I’ve always heard it said that people were just different back then and maybe they were, or maybe that’s just the bandage we put on it, so it doesn’t hurt so much. I don’t know. 
So anyway, back to this picture. Michael drew it and then colored it, just for me. Maddie his older sister (by two years) has given me tons of pictures, sometimes taking hours to complete just one.  And I keep them all.  I have them on the walls in my office, in my bookcase, and I usually have a couple in my suitcase when I travel. 

Grandbabies…they see world so differently. They don’t really understand the value of things.  They don’t have money, and even if they did, a dollar might as well be a hundred dollars, or thousand; but when they make something, its like they have made the most priceless thing on earth--and they made it just for you. 
And I’ve never bothered to tell them that the things they make are just paper and crayons and scribbling… and not what they think they’re worth.   

They’re worth... a whole lot more. 

Monday, April 25, 2016

The Great Lincoln Irony By Kim Michael Copyright April 2015

   



The Great Lincoln  Irony
 By Kim Michael       Copyright April 2015







The Merriam Webster dictionary defines “irony”as: a situation that is strangely out-of-place, or something that has happened that seems to be the exact opposite of what you might normally expect. 

History is full of strange ironies, and perhaps one of the strangest is The Great Lincoln “Irony”.    

But first you need to meet Edwin Thomas, a key player in this irony of ironies.  He was a popular actor during the time that Abraham Lincoln was president.  To say he was popular is actually an understatement.  Some theatrical historians considered him one of the greatest American actors ever, and certainly the greatest Shakespearian actor of the nineteenth century.  He was the equivalent to George Clooney or Cary Grant today, and he traveled across the country performing in only the finest theaters; not to mention he was considered a major “heart throb” by many adoring female fans. 

But his life would take several unexpected turns.  In 1863 or 1864 (no one knows for sure); while standing on a crowded railway platform in Jersey City, New Jersey; a young man was accidentally pushed off the platform and onto the tracks of an oncoming train.  To be fair, there are some accounts that say the train was already in the station and that the young man had slipped down under the wheels.  In either case, it is pretty much agreed that the young man would likely have been killed if not for one man standing on the platform who saw the boy fall and leaped onto the tracks to pull him to safety.  That man was Edwin Thomas, and at the time, he had no idea who the young man was.   

Now keep in mind that Edwin Thomas was an actor, and the first in our series of ironies is that it was pretty well known that Abraham Lincoln did not like going to the theater, which he often did merely to appease his wife Mary, who loved the theater.  And it is probably safe to say that if Lincoln didn’t like the theater, that he probably didn’t care for actors as well. 

And so I believe one of the great ironies of this story is, that, when Lincoln went to Ford’s theater that fateful night of April 14, 1865, he went to satisfy an  agenda, other than placating his wife; he went to meet and thank the brother of the actor, a cast member in the play, who had saved his son’s life several months before. 

The young man that Edwin Thomas had saved on that railway platform that day was Robert “Todd” Lincoln…Abraham Lincoln’s son.    

History will forever remember that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth…an actor.  What history has conveniently left out is that it was Edwin Thomas’ brother (an actor) that Lincoln was probably there to see that night; and that both Edwin's brother and the actor who  assassinated the President...were the same man.    

You see, Thomas was not Edwin’s last name; it was his only his middle name.  His last name was actually “Booth”.  And John Wilkes Booth, in addition to being Edwin’s brother and Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, was the man that Lincoln had likely gone to Ford’s Theater that night to meet and thank.


And so the great Lincoln Irony may more accurately be described as the great “Booth” Irony, in that one brother took the life of a Lincoln… and the other… had saved his son’s life.