Note: There is an audio file of this essay below it.

I recently watched “Roving Mars,” a documentary film about Spirit and Opportunity, the two rovers sent by NASA to explore the surface of Mars. NASA’s main mission was to find evidence that water once existed on the Red Planet. The evidence for that seems clear now. Mars once had enough water to make a significant mark on its geological landscape.

NASA’s greater goal is to find out if life exists outside of the earth. The only life-model we have is our own, and water seems to be the essential ingredient. To that end, scientists are seeking to find water on celestial bodies that are close enough for our analysis. One of Jupiter’s moons, Europa, seems another likely candidate for study. Primitive life may be found in the waters below the ice cap of Europa. If so, it would be the most important scientific discovery in the history of humankind. For if life occurs twice in the same solar system, then you can assume the universe is teeming with life forms of unimaginable diversity.

While watching the film I was moved almost to tears by the commitment of the science team to their twin rovers and to the small step they are taking in the history of human knowledge. They love Spirit & Opportunity, and many on the team are convinced that the rovers have distinct personalities. Opportunity seems more reliable, while Spirit seems to be rather impish and prone to trouble.

The rovers were designed to be operational for about 90 days. That they have continued to work for four years is miraculous. But the day is coming when their exhausted batteries will finally expend the last of their energy. The rover wheels will creak forward one final inch and then freeze in place, never to move again. Spirit and Opportunity will then sit perfectly still while time passes, and they are slowly coated with the red dust that covers that planet.

Will we send more rovers to Mars? Will humans one day land there and perhaps bring one of the rovers home? At this point we cannot say what will happen to Spirit and Opportunity because no one knows how much more of our resources will be put into the exploration of our solar system and the universe beyond it.

There are several natural barriers for any species that hopes to explore the Cosmos. Gravity and technology are among them. And the speed of light presents its own set of difficulties. The first two we have conquered, and the third is perhaps for another age of humanity to solve.

But there is one barrier that is making it hard for us to even get started.

Economics.

It is very expensive to explore the Cosmos. The resources it takes to explore even our own solar system are staggering. The United States is the wealthiest nation on earth, if we are talking about technology and the ability to use it. And yet it takes all that we can muster, economically, to put a couple of rovers on the planet that is closest to us. It cost 820 million dollars to put Spirit and Opportunity on Mars. It costs about 3 million dollars a month to keep them running and to analyze the information they send back. Imagine how much it would cost to put a couple of people on Mars.

Currently we have spent nearly a trillion dollars on the war in Iraq*. No one really knows how much we will end up spending because there are so many hidden costs.

It is not my purpose to make a case for whether or not we should be at war. I happen to think we should not, but that’s not the point here. I simply observe that as long as we are at war, we will never have the resources to learn very much about the Universe. Because of this war, things that might have been known in our lifetime will go unknown for decades, perhaps longer if this war leads to other wars, as they often do. That’s too bad. I’d really like to be alive when we get our first peek into the waters of Europa. But that may not happen in my lifetime.

The question is: How do we want to spend our money? Do we want to explore the heavens or do we want to fight amongst ourselves? Amazing, isn’t it, how global politics begins to sound like something from an elementary school playground?

It’s easy for ordinary people to feel that we have little or no control over how the government spends our money. It seems that there is nothing we can do about it. But if the scientists who sent Spirit and Opportunity to Mars can find joy in giving their lives to that one small step of knowledge, perhaps you and I could find joy in taking one small step of our own toward peace.

And that first step might mean using our imagination. It might mean being willing to have a dream. Change often begins when people have a dream. Martin Luther King Jr. certainly taught us that. So you and I have to dream. We have to imagine a different kind of future for ourselves and our children. And we have to want that future badly enough to shout and march and demonstrate and do whatever it takes to move humanity in another direction.

Imagine what the world would be like if we humans could cooperate and work together across national boundaries, using more and more of our global resources to help others live well enough to share in our common, human thirst for knowledge. Can you imagine that world? You want to send a probe to Europa? No problem. You want to explore other planets? Can do. You want to make sure that every child has food to eat and medical care? Absolutely.

Okay now stop. Stop for a moment. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking it’s a nice dream, but it’s never going to happen. You’re thinking I’m a starry-eyed dreamer with some beautiful but impossible ideas. Well, I am a starry-eyed dreamer; I admit that. But I’m also a thoughtful man who considers things carefully and is aware of the limitations of humanity.

I’m very aware of what human history has shown us about our nature and our capacity for evil.

You see, my own spiritual tradition contains the idea that something is broken in our hearts. Our selfishness and our need for money and power and pleasure is not going to be overcome solely by wishing and dreaming, though that is the first step. In the Christian tradition, the climax of our central story has a lot to say about how deeply evil is rooted in the world and how costly and difficult it is to set things right.

Most spiritual traditions teach that we need to be changed, and that change is imagined as a kind of spiritual transformation.

It happens when an alcoholic finds a power greater than herself and is changed so that she finds sobriety.

It happens when you see a powerful movie or documentary, and your eyes are opened to some issue or truth.

It happens when fiercely independent people reach the end of their resources and cry out for help.

Something snaps or breaks in your soul and you are never the same. That’s what I’m talking about when I say a spiritual transformation.

It breaks my heart to know that the various spiritual traditions of humankind have not shown others a clear vision of global peace. While the world fights over land and resources and ideology, we have fought over ridiculous minutia, theological language, and over which of our religions is the right one.

That’s got to stop.

I’ve had a vision, you see. I’m a little embarrassed to say so because I’m not really a vision sort of guy, but I keep having this crazy idea that maybe the age of exclusivity is passing away. It’s passing away slowly, like racism and nationalism and indifference to the health of our environment, but it IS passing away. Religious exclusivism had its day, but the sun it setting and a new dawn awaits. There are now people in every spiritual tradition who are willing to admit that theirs is not the only way. These people will admit that the intelligence behind creation seems to work with different people in different ways and with a cultural language that fits them.

Imagine if the spiritual people, the dream keepers of the sacred, archetypal stories that arise from our collective unconscious, were to embrace one another and celebrate the ancient beauty of our various traditions. Imagine if we spiritual people held hands across the world and called for peace instead of causing religious wars, which is what we are doing right now.

If that were to happen, the people of our world might see us differently. They might see the beauty and necessity of caring for our myths and traditions. Even brother and sister scientist would celebrate our ancient stories which are, after all, our earliest attempts to understand the world around us.

Peace would be our hallmark, and we would preach that it is the birthright of everyone born on this planet. And we would be set free to pursue truth in all of its wondrous forms.

Wouldn’t that be amazing?

And maybe there would be energy and money enough to take a peek at what lies below the ice on Europa. What we find there might show us that life is bigger and broader than we ever imagined.

Sigh.

It’s crazy talk, I know. And maybe it won’t happen.

But I can’t stop thinking about it.

rlp

http://marsrovers.nasa.gov

*Cost of War - Washington Post