Tim Urban:

As the father to a smiley little gnome, I desperately want to shield her from the negativity that will swirl around her as she grows up. I won’t be able to do that. But what I can do is continually redirect her attention to the rocket, showing her all the ways our species is incredible. I can use “rocket launch emotion” as a parenting compass and try, as many times as I can, to give her experiences that fill her with that particular magical, high-minded feeling.

This morning at breakfast, my son was asking me if we could bury some of the conkers we’d been collecting and grow a tree. And I was explaining that we could, but we’d have to wait a while. He’d probably be my age and it still wouldn’t be a proper “tree” yet. But that’s okay, because sometimes we do things for the people that will come after us. I feel like space exploration is like that.

Anyway, go read Tim’s whole piece, it’s beautiful.