StephenWinbaum
Communications Coordinator
/ Moderator
Mar 3, 2010, 11:27 AM
Post #1 of 1
(4480 views)
Shortcut
|
|
March 2010 Newsletter - Across the Universe
|
Can't Post
Private Reply
|
|
I remember him happy. He was usually beaten down from a hard day at the office. My mother would ask him how his day had gone and he’d answer, “Oh, a lot of screaming kids, as usual.”
Screaming kids were to be expected in my father’s pediatric practice. They were the inevitable outcome of the collective memories of piercing needles punctured through soft epidermal layers by a formidable man in a white lab coat, leaving children petrified, like innocent victims.
Tonight, though, I could see joy on his face, his cheeks shining, and the wide grin as he held up the paperback collection of short stories he’d purchased across the border, in Detroit. A Martian Odyssey by Stanley G. Weinbaum was a fanciful distraction for my father’s methodical, diagnostic mind because he speculated that the Sci Fi author could be a distant relative. Our name had been Weinbaum, until a lackadaisical sign painter mistakenly dropped off the ‘e’ from the logo of my grandfather’s butcher shop.
The mysterious author, Stanley G. Weinberg, had died in 1935 at the young age of thirty three, yet had garnered a cult reputation, fêted by the likes of Sci Fi pioneer Isaac Asimov. A Martian Odyssey was Weinbaum's masterpiece.
Martians. The fictional inhabitants of Mars. March is named after the Roman god of war – Mars. The attempt to explore the possibility of life on the red planet is mind-boggling. Stanley G. Weinbaum could never have forecast the head long rush to determine the existence of life on Mars.
Our extraterrestrial blast into outer space questions the growing need of Earth’s aging population. Two years ago, the Phoenix Lander 2008 was launched to search for signs of life, with future missions scheduled by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). Earthlings are addicted to exploration, the need to find “the cheddar” as fervidly demanded by the project administrator in the wildly popular movie – Avatar.
In comparison, the prospect of aging is boring; a trifle that bothers and annoys. Technology for enhanced retirement and long-term care exists, but progress is measured in search for life on Mars, not on Earth. Perhaps, that’s the message of March, a warring month, a time to take stock of our planetary inventory.
Stanley G. Weinbaum was a phantom, not likely a family relation. To my father who heard screaming kids all day, he held out a possibility of new life. For me, A Martian Odyssey was a great teenage read and I vividly recall pouring through it and dreaming about extraterrestrial life.
Stephen Winbaum is the Communications Coordinator of RetirementHomes.com.
---
(This post was edited by StephenWinbaum on Mar 4, 2010, 11:46 AM)
|
MAIN
SEARCH
WHO'S 
LOG 