The U.S. Space & Rocket Center serves as the Official NASA Visitor Center for Marshall Space Flight Center and is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution. Home to Space Camp, Aviation Challenge Camp, Space Camp Robotics, and U.S. Cyber Camp the it is the most comprehensive U.S. manned spaceflight hardware museum in the world.

The full exhibit is an inspiration to behold, especially the Saturn V Rocket on display: at 363 ft, it towers higher than the Statue of Liberty. Under the Saturn Rocket were scientists that worked on various components of the program, eagerly sharing their stories and recollections of history. It was great swapping stories of their engineering insights and my creative contributions to NASA OPSPARC. It got me to thinking that before the rocket was manifest, it was an idea in the minds of those building them.

...But what are they, anyway?

I have an idea about ideas. Much like energy in the universe, I don’t think they are created or destroyed. Somewhere in the recesses of our mind, like Carl Sagan’s Spaceship of Imagination, we are folding space/time to travel where they exist, bringing them back to our local coordinates.

In that respect, anything made whether it be a piece of art, a composition of music, or an instructional blueprint is more the result of data transmission (∿) than linear output. Either way, it’s a fun mindset to build from. It frees the creator from ego attached to the idea, and celebrates the process as part of a larger continuum.

While in Pennsylvania, I drove through the town of Hershey which is known for its candy bars and theme park.

What I didn’t know until then was the presence of Hershey Story Museum on Chocolate Ave. I wandered in, excited to get more of the story behind Milton Hershey and the candy making method.

I was suprised by the social innovation accomplished beyond consumables and products. Milton encouraged his employees to invest and become home owners in the community his company helped to engineer and build; with residential areas, recreation centers, and structures of the town remaining and operating to this day.

In any industry, short gains are inherent to whatever supply chain, manufacturing process, and development product “x” requires. As an organization scales innovation farther and outward, the tighter it is bound to the inward needs of understanding, community, and autonomy of those involved.

Part of the journey that’s been gratifying is catching up with close friends.

One of them I hadn’t seen in 7 years, since his wedding. Much of our conversations revolved around what each of us have learned in our personal and professional lives since that time. We kept coming back to the theme of “flow state”, and the critical role integrity and values play in unlocking it. His wife gifted me a bracelet from the little words project.

I put it on before my watch every morning to remind me to give up more control and surrender to the process.

For this year, events and convictions have re-oriented life to a new, transforming path.

I am challenging myself to pause the usual routine to make way for perspective and serendipity. More intention, less haste. More real-world, less filters. Internal and external growth often requires travel to places physically and mentally, listening to the stories being told, and building anew from there.

The roads and trails are calling, and I will write here about people and places along the Way.

All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

- excerpt from "The Riddle of Strider", by J.R.R. Tolkien