Tears for Icarus
We were not scheduled to hear the phrase “they died with honor” for at least another couple of weeks. It was being saved up to bestow upon those few unfortunates who will inevitably perish when one tribe of humans attacks another in one of our routine earthly squabbles. Now those seven souls aboard the Columbia had to go and wreck everything by dying not only with honor and courage, not only for their respective countries, but for the entire human race.
The Greek myth of Icarus tells of an ambitious craftsman who builds a set of wings and dreams of soaring with the birds. When he flies too close to the sun, the wax that holds the wings together melts and poor Icarus goes crashing to earth. The moral of the fable warns against the dangers of unnatural ambition. But that is a moral we cannot heed. The future of our species is in the stars – everything in our consciousness and biology knows it. We look to the stars, we spread our wings, and sometimes we crash to earth and break. Then we get up, dust ourselves off and try again. Because we must.
Today we lost seven children of Icarus. In a time when notions of bravery and heroism come fast and cheap, these people stood for the true essence of human courage, dignity, curiosity, and ambition in the face of extreme uncertainty. There is no higher honor we can aspire to than to die in the quest for knowledge and betterment.
We can cry for the children of Icarus and their families, to whom talk of honor and courage must be small comfort right now. But the dream of Icarus still lives.
Also see The Raven for a similar perspective on the day's events.
12:21:56 PM 
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