Captivated

"Space - the final frontier."

Thus starts the introduction to one of television's most lasting and famous programs, Star Trek.

Of course, it's not the final frontier.  Space as we now know it consists of so much more than just a trip to the closest star or star cluster.  In fact, the Milky Way itself is thought to contain a couple of hundred thousand stars.  We hadn't really been able to look much farther than that when Star Trek first came out.

Now we know so much more.  Space is still fascinating.  There's just a whole lot more to it than just a fascinating frontier.  It conjures images to mind that we can only sketch out as an artist's representation at present.  It's fascinating, beautiful, inviting, full of splendor, and sacred ("set apart" from Earth views).

If I really think about it, I realize I have something like space in my own mind.  It's the place I can go to over and over and still enjoy and explore.  I can think of new frontiers or I can go to those really familiar places.  My favorite is a safely guarded memory that I conjure to mind.  It, too, is fascinating, inviting, and sacred.  It's familiar but it contains unexplored territory because I can think of what happened after that memory or what could have happened as a result of it.  I have it captured in the chambers of my heart and mind so that I can explore its uncharted areas at will.  Whenever I recall it, it is beautiful and full of splendor.  That particular stored image flashed before me today, unexpectedly.  I was captivated again by it, just like space.

The final frontier seems far away, as do memories for that matter.  But, I get excited thinking of exploring the ice oceans of certain moons, the volcanoes of others, the remnants of life from dried up oceans, and the energy producing craters of others.  I get equally excited seeing the familiar red dirt and strewn rocks of Mars and the ice patches of Pluto.  And, it's just as sensational to explore again the representation from that sacred chamber of my heart.  I just love what that exploration brings.