If You Believe All is Lost
There are times when telling yourself that, “this, too, will pass,” does not feel inspiring; it feels unreasonable. You may have suffered a loss that changed the shape of your life. Maybe you have tried so many times, only to have your hopes dashed yet again, and you wonder if you have it in you to try again. After enough disappointments, refusing to risk another failure can seem like simple good sense. Your future seems to narrow. Possibilities that once seemed boundless and plentiful begin to look as though they belong to someone else. If you’ve confided in a friend that you’re having a tough time, and he or she replies, “Oh, other people have had it much worse, and they succeeded.” Not helpful.
But, “I cannot see a way forward” is not the same as “there is no way forward.” Yes, sometimes the dream is not possible, whether because the time passed, the opportunity went to someone else, or it wasn’t what you thought it was going to be. The way forward now may not be the path, the dream you first sought. Something worthwhile may still exist that you cannot yet see from where you are standing.
Perhaps the next question is not whether you believe everything will turn out well, but whether you are willing to remain curious about what might still be possible.
A Case Study of Rising Again
From Dashed Hopes to Becoming the Only Man Buried on the Moon
Eugene Shoemaker was a geologist who dreamed of doing something no geologist had ever done: go to the Moon and study its rocks and landscape firsthand.
When America began preparing to send astronauts to the Moon, Shoemaker hoped to become an astronaut himself. That dream ended when a medical examination revealed that he had Addison’s disease*, disqualifying him from astronaut service.
But Shoemaker did not abandon the work simply because he could not fulfill it in the way he had imagined. He became one of the founders of astrogeology—the application of geology to the Moon and other planetary bodies. He established the USGS Branch of Astrogeology. He mapped lunar geology, worked on the Ranger and Surveyor programs, and helped train Apollo astronauts to recognize, interpret, and collect geologically important material on the Moon. He was awarded more than a dozen major honors during his lifetime for his contributions to science.
Shoemaker taught other people how to do the work on the Moon that he had once hoped to do himself.
Unfortunately, Shoemaker’s work and life were cut short. He died in an automobile accident in Australia in 1997 while traveling with his wife and science partner, Carolyn. (She sustained injuries, but survived, and passed away in 2021, at age 92.)
After his death, some of his ashes were placed aboard NASA’s Lunar Prospector spacecraft. On July 31, 1999, the spacecraft deliberately crashed into the Moon near its south pole. His ashes remain there. The USGS describes Shoemaker as the only person whose remains have been buried on the Moon.
So, did Shoemaker’s dream not come to reality in his lifetime? Yes, that is true. He did not walk on the moon or collect samples himself. However, he helped create the science that made it possible for other geologists and astronauts to understand it.
In the 1960s, he brought Apollo astronauts to Meteor Crater in northern Arizona (Barringer Crater) and trained them in field geology there.
Depending on your spiritual beliefs, perhaps we could say that the Almighty had a “loftier” goal for Shoemaker, a higher purpose.
We see a striking progression in his story:
- he was medically rejected from becoming an astronaut
- he went on to establish planetary geology
- he trained the astronauts who went to the Moon
- and became one of the most highly honored planetary scientists of his generation.
What do you think? If what you have been doing isn’t working, if something has occurred to make that dream impossible, what else might be beaconing you? In what other way might you contribute?