ghoti_mhic_uait: (Robot robot)
Today, for Judith's birthday treat, we went to see Canadian astronaut and former commander of the ISS, Chris Hadfield, talk.

She was utterly enthralled, but Andreas was overwhelmed by the crowds so neither Colin nor I saw the whole thing. She recommends that if you get the chance to hear him talk, you do, because he was very interesting.

There were slides and an interview and questions from the floor, and then singing.

He talked about how he became an astronaut (he decided at 9 when he saw men walk on the moon for the first time and worked hard on being the sort of person who makes a good astronaut - he says the things that make a good astronaut are having studied something intricate, to prove you can learn complicated things, being able to make difficult decisions (he suggested that test pilots, doctors and people in charge of financial decisions are good choices), being physically fit and being a well rounded person with interests other than space (he suggests playing guitar, for obvious reasons)). He talked about his missions, and key moments from the ISS (like the time he went blind while on a space walk and it turned out to be the demister in the helmet - so now they use Johnsons for the no tears formula instead of the stingy soap).

The pictures were gorgeous, and some of them really clear as well. The London one I saw at the observatory in Greenwich, where they pointed out where they were, it's really obvious! And I hadn't realised quite how far up the aurora go, he was talking about walking into the aurora australis!

The talk was really interesting too, and he was very lighthearted and humurous, with a dry wit even when talking about serious matters. Like, he was saying that the first few orbits of the earth you're looking for familiar physical landmarks. There's Hudson Bay, there's Perth, there's the Golden Gate bridge, there's Paris. But after that, you start looking and realising the unity of human civilisation and thinking in terms of unity rather than 'us and them'.

Judith's favourite bit was when he was talking about his first view of earth from space and how stunningly beautiful it is, which seems a fairly standard thing to say for those that have been in space; Colin's big boss finds every opportunity to turn the conversation that way, in my experience :)
ghoti_mhic_uait: (Candle)
As a member of the Church Universal, I tend to think of my personal faith as being linked to the community. Thus I love hymns like Faith of Our Fathers, which I have mostly sung while celebrating Mass in abbeys ruined during the dissolution of the monastery and I love the knowledge that I can go into any church in the world and join in and by in a real as well as technical sense a part of the community. The feeling of Communion, of continual unity with other Catholics, is wonderful.

Anyway, this means that although it might not be the first thing some people think of when they hear 'personal religion', I will be answering this in the form of the Nicene creed* (what we say on a Sunday, in the translation currently used in the English speaking Catholic church) with annotations.

I believe in one God )

Lastly, I often talk about the joy of being Christian, I have the LJ interest 'being an Easter people', focus on the light from the Paschal fire warming the church both physical and metaphorical. So I leave you with this thought from the prophet Joel:

Be glad, people of Zion,
rejoice in the Lord your God,
for he has given you the autumn rains
because he is faithful.
(Joel 2:23)




*yes, that's the one which was written at the first ecumenical council, popularly known as the council of Nicaea, where St Nicholas punched a heretic in the face.

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