New Perspectives Change Everything
Leland Melvin, NASA Astronaut
Astronaut Leland Melvin recently talked about how his career could have been cut short from a single traffic stop. Thankfully that didn’t happen. Melvin has a storied career, from the NFL to NASA.
Leland Melvin’s experience as an astronaut on the International Space Station illustrates that when we consider a radically different perspective, our mindsets have to change. There’s no way we could stay the same.
Melvin said his "aha" moment in space came unexpectedly. He anticipated it would happen as he helped install the European Space Agency's Columbus Laboratory on the International Space Station in 2008.
But it wasn't until NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson invited Melvin over to the Russian segment of the station to share a meal. The crew included astronauts with Russian, French, German, African American and Asian American backgrounds and was hosted by Whitson -- the first female commander of the space station, Melvin said.
"We were breaking bread at 17,500 miles per hour, going around the planet every 90 minutes. And that was when my head exploded, and I had this epiphany about our planet and looking back at it, getting this thing called the orbital perspective."
It's something astronauts gain as they gaze down at our planet as a whole.
"I think we as a civilization need to take that thing that we get in space as astronauts," he said. "And we know that if we don't work together as a team, and we were one of the most diverse teams in space, then we (would) perish."
Working together is the only way Melvin thinks humanity can survive on this planet, get back to the moon and get to Mars.
"The way we do it is with the right perspective. And we bring this perspective home from space, to go back to space as a civilization of diverse people," he said. "It's perspective together, that we work together, we live together, and we change the universe together."
I think we could all be better people if we just took a bit more time to consider perspectives that may challenge us. Why not?