Now I have a hankering for Holst. I need to feast on some Planets. Thanks, Gerard!

Sorry, but all that seeking and striving nonsense has to be put on hold until we achieve social justice, and perfect equality.

So there.

JWM

I don't bother with the shuttle schedules any more. My windows rattle, the dog jumps and I look up.

At The Space Center they have a fabulous IMAX 3D movie touring the International Space Station. Then you go to The Saturn V exhibit. Prepare to stand in awe.

Maybe, just maybe, now that the last Shuttle mission is on its way we can get on with fulfilling the promise of that poem, set down in (oddly enough) another Tennyson passage:

For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;

Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight dropping down with costly bales;

This will either be the first century of the ages that lie ahead, during which humanity will spread to the farthest stars, and become forever immune to all the disasters of nature - or it will be the first century in the long slide back down into the primeval slime.

To quote a movie inspired by Wells; "The Universe or nothing - which shall it be?" I sincerely hope that the decision will not be made on the basis of how best to secure the pork for some Congressman.