When I was in elementary school, if an adult had asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I’d given them an honest answer, I’d have told them I wanted to grow up to be a pioneer in the later half of the 1800s. I never gave this answer to inquiring adults, time travel being impossible. It was, however, what I really wanted to be.
I LOVED the Little House on the Prairie series. I read them over and over. It didn’t hurt that I was lucky enough to touch this era of history, literally touch it, pretty often. My dad was stationed at the Air Force Academy then. Our family spent many weekends on four-wheel drive roads in the back country of Colorado. The mountains were littered with “ghost towns” from the 1800s gold rush. If you went to the towns (and the mines) that could only be reached with an off-road ready vehicle, or more remote still, only by foot, there was so much to find. We were like amateur archeologists.
We found town buildings and cabins, some still creakily holding on to standing upright. Others had fallen around themselves probably decades before. We explored the ruins, and I used to have a collection of found treasures such as pieces of broken china, the leg from an old iron stove, many nails etc. Looking back at it with my sensitivity to infection, it was a tetnus wonderland. Thank God I never cut myself on any of it!
Closer to home there was a cabin in the woods near where we lived on the Air Force Academy. It was maintained as a historical site and built by one of the settling families in the Colorado Springs area. (Read a bit about the cabin here). I used to spend my summers dressed up like a pioneer (or as close as I could come to it.) We made a covered wagon out of our Red Flyer wagon, and being the bossy big sister I was, I’d press my little brother into service as the horse, or as the “Pa” depending on the need at the time. We spent hours on the porch of this cabin (it was kept locked) pretending it was ours.
There was something appealing, even romantic, about the idea of being among the first. Not understanding just how hard the work was, playing at it was so much fun! It was only as I grew older that I appreciated the gambles and sacrifices made by those who moved westward. (Or understood how negatively they impacted the peoples they encountered.)
Today it is hard to be a true pioneer. There aren’t as many firsts left. There aren’t many places you can go and not know when, or if, you’ll be able to communicate with the loved ones left behind. There aren’t many places you can go and likely never be able to turn back.
But the lack of pioneering opportunities will not last forever.
In 2013 my imagination was captivated by the Mars One project. They sent out a global call for volunteers to be the first on a one-way mission to colonize Mars. The project went bankrupt, received widespread criticism as to whether the project was feasible and was called a scam.
I wasn’t one of the 202,586 volunteers (the number of volunteer applications Mars One said they received, although some have suggested the number to be much lower) from around the world who applied for the mission. Were it not for HPS, I might have thought about it. Somehow I thought traveling as far away from a major medical center as anyone has ever gone wouldn’t be the wisest move on my part, even if the selection committee was willing to overlook it.
Yet, anyone volunteering for the mission would have to know they would be giving up certain things, like hospitals. They’d also, in pioneering tradition, give up hugging loved ones on holidays or life conveniences we probably haven’t even thought of yet.
Someday it will happen though. Whether it’s the moon, or Mars or space stations, the next frontier, I think, is just a matter of time. Yes, probably a long time.
Amid our pandemic and racial strife, another news story passed quickly through the headlines on May 30th. SpaceX, a private company and not a government agency, provided the rocket and ship to deliver two astronauts to the space station. Private companies coming into the mix seem like they’ll increase the likelihood of colonization. Royalty used to finance initial exploration, but somehow, profit seemed to work its way into the picture to keep things going. Perhaps we should think about that as we inch toward the future. Could we do it better this time?
There are so many obstacles to overcome to make this sort of dream ever happen. It must have seemed that way in the 1500s when people thought about a place across the vast ocean.
I won’t get to be a part of it. I doubt that even if I live many more years, I’ll get to see it. But when my mind wonders, I can’t help to think about it. I can’t help to think what the lives of those future colonists will be like, and how they will impact humankind in general.
There are still so many places to explore and unknown things to learn.
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