There Will Come Soft Rains, by Francis X. Maier

I’m a 4 a.m. guy.  I rise early to think and work in the silence.  But every once in a while, the outside world intrudes.  I’ll turn off the lights and listen in the dark to a symphony beyond my window: the long sigh of falling rain; the percussion of faraway thunder.  It’s the music of nature, alive and fertile.  It’s suffused with beauty.  And we humans were made to be part of that beauty, with a dignity unlike any other creature.  We have the ability to dream and build, and the genius to make things happen.  J.R.R. Tolkien described our species as “sub-creators.”  In effect, we’re junior partners with the Creator himself.  We have a unique role in making all things new.  For better or worse.

I was reminded of this recently while reading yet another lurid tale about Elon Musk.  Musk is now something of a hate magnet.  He’s routinely cast as the dangerous, unelected Tech Bro of Washington’s Boogeyman-in-Chief.  A late March Wall Street Journal report highlighted the DOGE master’s role in disrupting NASA’s plans for a return to the moon.  According to the Journal, Musk has pressed the agency to pursue a manned mission to Mars instead.  This would arguably benefit his own company, SpaceX, in a perceived conflict of interest.  And it would fit very comfortably with Musk’s lifelong personal goal of colonizing Mars.  “Occupy Mars” is the slogan on his favorite tee shirt. …