All Systems are GO & All Lights are Green

“At the present time, all systems are go; all lights are green.” –Paul Haney as Paul Cunningham in Capricorn One (1978). There’s something really inspiring about watching a rocket launch. All the preparation work that goes in, all the technology, all the teamwork, and the coordination of science, wisdom and human endeavour... all of this goes toward the single goal of pushing that rocket or space shuttle into the upper reaches of earth’s atmosphere and well beyond.

Whatever we like to call it, this momentum, inertia, thrust, and drive propels a sophisticated collection of hardware housing representatives of humankind in ways, and to places, most of us couldn’t conceive before the space age officially began in October 1957.

But there’s an altogether different and much more closer-to-home and common form of momentum in life, one that we hardly ever think about.

It’s the life-force all about us--a life-force that dictates our moods, others’ moods and the interactions all between. And people’s moods are only a start. There’s a huge range of variables in life that could represent almost an aura around and in people. These are almost certainly of the spiritual realm besides our emotional worlds, notwithstanding the unknown.

Momentum is vital to us. We all know it. Think of giving up smoking. Whenever we did it we felt much better months after than days after. The early tiredness and jitters gave way to a fresh view on life without tobacco months later. I took the habit up again several times, once after three years smoke-free, and that was disheartening... my momentum had come to a standstill. Re-establishing the inertia, at the time, is seemingly impossible.

And again, momentum is important in the things we start or are able to start, as well as the things we continue. Our habits (good and not-so-good) have momentum about them. Relationships have momentum about them. Even the skills and knowledge we have has momentum about it. It’s a job of maintenance.

So, what’s the point?

We work hard in life to get to a position where ‘all systems are go and all lights are green.’ We sacrifice greatly in some cases. Let us enjoy this gathered momentum, absorbing it, and let’s also learn how to maintain it and even build on it--like a rocket through the stratosphere to the achievement of all our goals. And we can do this only one day at a time.

Copyright © 2009, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.