Little Nudges

Hello! It's me. Brad. Let's reimagine the little things.

Welcome to a special early edition of The Enthusiast. I’m in the midst of traveling for the book, The Fantastic Bureau of Imagination. Thank you to *everyone* who has cheered and purchased and reviewed and shared! It’s been a super eventful and rewarding launch.

Today I’m sharing with you something short, but special. (Also there’s bonus audio that I really hope you can take time to listen to) Years ago, a dream came true and I finally got to meet an astronaut. A real one. Been to space. Eaten the space food. Commander Ron Garan is a brilliant, impressive man who has been to space, flown jets, lived underwater, and -yes- even played can phone with me.

Over the years, Mr. Garan has encouraged and challenged me in many ways. He’s a gifted storyteller and teacher who is passionate about communicating his NASA experience and does so beautifully. (Not all astronauts have the abillity to communicate with the same poetic passion. After Apollo 12, Pete Conrad is said to have been asked what it was like to be on the moon. His response was, “Super! Really enjoyed it!” 😂)

As Garan recounts stories, his tales invite you into wonder, awe, and reverance. Like many who have been to space before him, he returned to Earth with a sense of responsibility. The overview effect, as its been deemed, is a shift in seeing our world and one’s place in it. For Ron, he believes you don’t have to go to space to experience it or let this wonder wash over you.

Essentially, I had been bugging Mr. Garan with question after question. You know, those things you’ve always wanted to ask an astronaut: are there aliens? (he says he didn’t see any), are the diapers uncomfortable? (he provided no comment) Seeing as he’d seen existence from such an orbital perspective, I asked him about the future. Are we doomed? Can humanity make it in the future?

He was boldly optimistic and explained why.

If an asteroid were heading straight for our planet . . .

we have been conditioned to think, the obvious solution is to do something big. Blow the thing up. In the movie Armageddon, they send Bruce Willis and he makes it ‘asplode. Like this:

We’ve gotten in the habit of thinking that all challenges must be met with something forceful, grand, violent, and explosive. This thinking, he explained to me, is not true. If an asteroid were hurtling toward us and it meant certain doom for people we love here on Earth, NASA’s solution would be …

… send a small aircraft. (He mentioned an approximate size of an old Ford Taurus). The small aircraft would get close enough to the object and just give it a slight nudge. Yes. It would just give a little nudge with, what he called, ‘nothing more than the force of a feather.’ This little nudge would completely shift the course of the object and save all human life on Earth. Yay!

Now, I do have lots of follow up questions for Commander Garan. Apparently last October a scenario frighteningly similiar to what he proses here actually happened. From what I’ve gathered, there were no feathers involved. There was, though, some type of impact between a spacecraft and an asteroid. It’s fascinating.

WHY ARE YOU SHARING THIS WITH US, BRAD? Well, because, we have a world of challenges. You have personal stresses and situations. We have collective issues that need addressing. We have an entire future to dream and build together. It’s important we remember that the path of greatest possibilities lies in little nudges. It’s not the big, violent, showy acts of force. It’s the little acts of love. Daily. Over time. These are the things that nudge us towards better tomorrows.

In Becoming Better Grownups, I included an especially perspective-shifting story from him. It’s a story I’ve since told many classrooms and recounted to my children regularly. Today, I also include audio from a few years ago. It’s me trying to explain this with my children:

Getting to travel and share The Fantastic Bureau of Imagination is a real dream come true. My hopes with the book is that it can invite readers young and old into re-imagining everything. So often, we tell kids to change the world, but we don’t dream together with them about what it should look like nearly enough. It’s time to dream. It’s time to do.

We can reimagine the future … one tiny nudge at a time.