I’m not sure why the term “Event Horizon” popped into my head. I looked it up and found, “It’s the term scientists use to refer to the edge of the black hole that will suck anything and everything that gets too close to it, into a vortex, making it seemingly disappear forever.” OK. I’m stepping back from the vortex. What I had in mind was not quite that.
Specifically I was thinking about the scene in “Apollo 13” when the astronauts were floating along with little control of their damaged vehicle. Understanding the physics of space flight, the men must have been terrified at their chances. They were literally flying without a net and had to maneuver themselves into an atmospheric “entry window” of only 2 1/2 degrees in a crippled ship neither designed nor tested to pull it off. The paper thin reentry window would be unforgiving. Coming in too steep would incinerate the ship from the friction of the thickening atmosphere. A too shallow entry would skip the crew like a rounded rock off a pond of tranquility, unrecoverably into the blackness of space.
The arc of our lives ocassionally presents these entry windows. Career is a good example. We might think we’re on the right course, a safe course, but really we’ve skipped off into the vacuum without even knowing it. Eventually support systems shut down and we fade away. Do you have the courage to course correct? The correction must be delicately handled, else we burn in the flames of risk realized, but to stay adrift is gutless. You’ve got one shot. Maybe two if you’re lucky. Do you take it and risk for exhilarating reward, or drift off into space with nothing but time to think about what might have been?
Missed ya fifteenkey good to see you back. Yeah know the work post is there but not the same as fifteenkey.