This Day in History
04/10/12 05:17
One of the things that I do most days is to check out the History.com web site and find out what events in history occurred on this day. October 4 is the anniversary of some events that have impacted my life and the life of others around me.
It was on October 4, 1927, that Gutzon Borglum began work on Mount Rushmore. Borglum had already achieved significant attention as a sculptor of gigantic works of art for the contributions to Stone Mountain, near Atlanta, Georgia. Mount Rushmore National Memorial became his defining work. And the huge sculpture became one of the defining features of our area. People from around the world who know little of the Black Hills, our history and our culture, can identify Mount Rushmore. People from around the world come to look at the carvings and welcoming visitors has become an important part of our economy and our identity.
I don’t know what work was accomplished that first autumn, but I imagine that it might have been a bit warmer on October 4 that year. We are experiencing our first cold turn of the season. Yesterday the winds picked up and the temperatures started dropping. It didn’t get down to freezing last night, but the forecast is still calling for below freezing temperatures and a chance of snow for tonight. Our first hard freeze of the year has got us all scrambling for jackets and gloves that we haven’t needed for months. It really isn’t too cold to work outdoors yet, however, and there are plenty of autumns when significant work can be accomplished before we seen too much snow.
In a way the character of most baby boomers has been affected by another October 4 event. It was October 4, 1957 when the Soviet Union ushered in the space age with the successful launch of the world’s first artificial satellite. Sputnik was about the size of a volleyball and carried a transmitter that sent radio signals back to earth as it orbited the planet every hour and 36 minutes. It was visible by binoculars during the night. Officially designated as a scientific expedition and launched to correspond with the International Geophysical Year, it raised fear in the United States that the Soviet Union might turn to more sinister uses of rockets and satellite technology. It also demonstrated a significant lead in such technologies for the Soviet Union over the United States.
Competition gets our energies going and focuses our attention and the launching of Sputnik inspired intense activity by U.S. government, military and scientific leaders. By the end of January, 1958, the U.S. had launched Explorer, but by then the Soviets had sent a dog into orbit aboard Sputnik 2. From then on, my grade school years were dominated by the space race as both countries poured enormous amounts of money and intellectual energy into achieving firsts. The Soviets continued to make headlines with the first man in space, the first woman, the first three men, the first space walk, the first craft to impact the moon and the first soft moon landing. The US, however, achieved the big “first” with the successful landing of two Apollo 11 astronauts on the surface of the moon and then successfully returning them to the earth in the summer of 1969. It was an amazing amount of discovery and technology that was developed in a dozen years.
The space race dominated my educational career. My elementary and high school years were times when the country was focused on that race and science, especially aerospace was promoted as the highest of educational goals. Growing up in an aviation family, I felt a lot of encouragement to purse the study of science. Our home was filled with books and opportunities to learn. As the Apollo program advanced, we even had a globe of the moon with potential landing sites labeled.
My head and heart were in the clouds in those days, but I wasn’t much for the details and techniques of science and technology. It was becoming clear to me in my high school years that philosophy and religion were more in the center of my interests. I enjoyed debating and speculating about the meaning of life more than the precise accuracy of mathematics and physics. Now, looking back, I wish I had paid more attention to those disciplines as they continue to interest me and my current readings in physics are a struggle for my aging mind.
I really don’t have regrets, however. My sometimes wishing that I had been more diligent in my studies goes in the category of my occasional wish that I had devoted more time to practicing the piano when I was a child. I was never destined to be a great performing artist. I don’t think that it is my calling to make contributions to the advancement of science, either. I am, rather, much more at home in my studies of scripture, theology and philosophy. My books have become my friends and my reading, though varied, all returns to questions of meaning.
My life leads me not to the breakthroughs of science, but to the intersections of deep meaning and universal truth. I have been in the room of a brilliant rocket scientist as he faced his own death. I have walked through the journey of grief with the family of one of the people who contributed deeply to the technological advances of the 1960’s. It is a simple fact that we will all one day die from this life. Fame, wealth, deep contributions to the common knowledge – none of these things make facing death any easier. None of them prepare families for the reality of loss and grief.
So I walk a different journey with the families that I serve. It is one of deep meaning and joy. It is also a journey of discovery. The places where life and death meet are nowhere near as frightening as some anticipate. The sense of discovery is as rich as it is for those on the cutting edge of technology and science.
Still we all are shaped by history and our culture. Knowing what happened on this day in history adds meaning to this day in my life as I anticipate tomorrow and the days that are yet to come.
I don’t know what work was accomplished that first autumn, but I imagine that it might have been a bit warmer on October 4 that year. We are experiencing our first cold turn of the season. Yesterday the winds picked up and the temperatures started dropping. It didn’t get down to freezing last night, but the forecast is still calling for below freezing temperatures and a chance of snow for tonight. Our first hard freeze of the year has got us all scrambling for jackets and gloves that we haven’t needed for months. It really isn’t too cold to work outdoors yet, however, and there are plenty of autumns when significant work can be accomplished before we seen too much snow.
Competition gets our energies going and focuses our attention and the launching of Sputnik inspired intense activity by U.S. government, military and scientific leaders. By the end of January, 1958, the U.S. had launched Explorer, but by then the Soviets had sent a dog into orbit aboard Sputnik 2. From then on, my grade school years were dominated by the space race as both countries poured enormous amounts of money and intellectual energy into achieving firsts. The Soviets continued to make headlines with the first man in space, the first woman, the first three men, the first space walk, the first craft to impact the moon and the first soft moon landing. The US, however, achieved the big “first” with the successful landing of two Apollo 11 astronauts on the surface of the moon and then successfully returning them to the earth in the summer of 1969. It was an amazing amount of discovery and technology that was developed in a dozen years.
The space race dominated my educational career. My elementary and high school years were times when the country was focused on that race and science, especially aerospace was promoted as the highest of educational goals. Growing up in an aviation family, I felt a lot of encouragement to purse the study of science. Our home was filled with books and opportunities to learn. As the Apollo program advanced, we even had a globe of the moon with potential landing sites labeled.
My head and heart were in the clouds in those days, but I wasn’t much for the details and techniques of science and technology. It was becoming clear to me in my high school years that philosophy and religion were more in the center of my interests. I enjoyed debating and speculating about the meaning of life more than the precise accuracy of mathematics and physics. Now, looking back, I wish I had paid more attention to those disciplines as they continue to interest me and my current readings in physics are a struggle for my aging mind.
I really don’t have regrets, however. My sometimes wishing that I had been more diligent in my studies goes in the category of my occasional wish that I had devoted more time to practicing the piano when I was a child. I was never destined to be a great performing artist. I don’t think that it is my calling to make contributions to the advancement of science, either. I am, rather, much more at home in my studies of scripture, theology and philosophy. My books have become my friends and my reading, though varied, all returns to questions of meaning.
My life leads me not to the breakthroughs of science, but to the intersections of deep meaning and universal truth. I have been in the room of a brilliant rocket scientist as he faced his own death. I have walked through the journey of grief with the family of one of the people who contributed deeply to the technological advances of the 1960’s. It is a simple fact that we will all one day die from this life. Fame, wealth, deep contributions to the common knowledge – none of these things make facing death any easier. None of them prepare families for the reality of loss and grief.
So I walk a different journey with the families that I serve. It is one of deep meaning and joy. It is also a journey of discovery. The places where life and death meet are nowhere near as frightening as some anticipate. The sense of discovery is as rich as it is for those on the cutting edge of technology and science.
Still we all are shaped by history and our culture. Knowing what happened on this day in history adds meaning to this day in my life as I anticipate tomorrow and the days that are yet to come.