The Most Important Picture Ever Taken

If you wish to be pedantic (and I usually do), I should say "The most important picture taken to date." But that's not the point.

The point is, if you go back a couple thousand years you'll find large groups of people worshipping the planets. Without the Sun there would be no life, so clearly it must be a god. So too, the Moon and the Wanderers, with the myriad stars as their attendants. From their movements could be determined the state of the world and portents of things to come.

Return to the present, and our conceptions of the heavens (and of God) are dramatically different. We've gotten used to dramatic images sent from far away spacecraft and don't bat an eye at more than 10 years of continuous human presence in space (more than 25 years total), when we think of it at all. For some time now, the International Space Station has been the third brightest object in the sky, surpassed only by the Sun and the Moon.

If you showed our ancestors what our hands have wrought, they would literally worship it! If that does not qualify as a wonder, I don't know what is. And we have the pics to prove it!



Photo credit: ESA/NASA/Roscosmos. Click for larger views of the whole series.

As of the penultimate Space Shuttle flight (STS-134), construction of the station is effectively finished, and as a result of some unique timing and some very impressive inter-agency work they were able to get a series of shots while the Shuttle was still attached. Not only that, but it has 4 of the currently operating visiting vehicles present: The Shuttle, Russia's Soyuz and Progress, and ESA's ATV. (Japan's HTV is missing, having recently departed.)

I honestly believe that that image is more awe-inspiring than anything humanity has accomplished to date, and it seems like people don't care. I had someone honestly ask me last week if NASA was cancelling the human spaceflight program. Just about every day I see an article in the news talking about replacements for the Shuttle, and none of them seem to get it.

It's this.

This is the next stage. This is what the Shuttle has been working to build for the last 10 years, and now that it's done the Shuttle can be retired with a secure legacy.

Oh, sure, there are other crew vehicles in development, and we're working on plans for further exploration as successors to the ISS, but this is the next phase, and it's important. This is where we are learning to live and work in space for long durations, and if we are to continue going on farther and longer missions, the research we are doing now is what will make it possible. There's a reason they made it a National Laboratory, after all.

When our ancestors look back on our achievements, I think that this is what they will point to in amazement at what we were able to produce with what resources we have. Next time you have a clear night get out and look at it, and wave to our representatives in our first real foothold off of this planet. After a recent reboost, it's now easier to see than ever! You can get list of upcoming passes from Heaven's Above (though if you're not in the Twin Cities, you should probably set your location first).

Behold the Nature of Cheese

As this is the first post, there are some formalities to be dispensed with. Specifically, to establish that the existence of this blog is solely due to that fact that there are some (few) thoughts which require more space than a tweet. Posts here will be extremely infrequent and will always be noted on Twitter, so if you are at all interested you'll want to follow me there instead.

With that out of the way, let's talk about cheese.

I'm sitting here eating some cheese (toasted) with bread and olives and wine, and am reminded of a conversation from several weeks ago. That conversation was in relation to Chesterton's thoughts on cheese. He expounds on its virtues well enough that I feel no need to add anything, but I would like to discuss the place of cheese in the order of creation.

As anyone who knows me should know, I am of the opinion that there are two foods which were exempted from the effects of the fall; these are honey and olive oil. The reasons why will, unfortunately, have to wait for another day, since although I was initially inclined to place cheese among their ranks, I have realized that this is not fitting. Cheese was not created directly by God but is the work of human hands, a subcreated good. This places it in the company of bread and wine, which when you consider in light of my menu for the evening you can see is entirely proper.

But, and this is a significant point, cheese cannot attain to the status of bread or wine. Just as in the Incarnation human nature, which the Psalmist tells us is little less than the angels, is transformed to share in the very nature of God Himself, so in the Eucharist are bread and wine raised above other foods. How exactly does this work? In the Incarnation Jesus Christ becomes true God and true Man, in the Eucharist does He become true Bread as well? Such a thought is ludicrous, except in metaphor. Bread has no will, it is not in the image of its own creator, let alone that of the Creator of all. Nonetheless, although their natures are not changed, it seems clear that through the Sacrament bread and wine are accorded a dignity far beyond their station. Although by the fact of their creation they are below the likes of olive oil and honey, by Christ they have been raised to be the pinnacle of foods.

Where does this leave cheese? It would seem that in its nature it is the equal of bread and wine (and has been so since the beginning), it is lesser only in dignity (and that only since the Last Supper). This is not to say that cheese is lacking in dignity, quite the reverse! The only way for it to have more dignity is through the direct intervention of God! I do think, though, that this explains what Chesterton calls 'The Neglect of Cheese in European Literature'. It is worthy in its own right, but European authors being so predominately Christian understood that there are foods that are much more powerful symbols.

So, there are a few thoughts on cheese. I really do think that I could live quite pleasantly with a very small selection of food and drink, but a world without cheese is one I cannot bear to imagine.