The Great Gordino Newsletter – Tues Feb 24th 2015

Hi,
I hope all is well with you.

This week there was a lunar eclipse, always fascinating to see. I always imagine myself looking at the shadow of the earth as it blocks the sunlight on the moon, and then I consider that the shadow is of the earth, which has me standing on it, looking at the shadow. Then I get a headache…

"Pale blue dot"
Nice as that was to see, this month also saw the 25th anniversary of the pale blue dot.
Hang on, the what now?

The pale blue dot.

Taken Feb 14th 1990 by the Voyager 1 space probe, from nearly 4 billion miles away.
The probe had finished all the designed tasks, and as it was leaving the solar system, it was directed to turn the camera around and take a last photo of the earth.

I always think of a Star Trek episode, where a civilisation on a planet far far away bows down to a God called Vyger, and it turns out to be a probe called Voyager.

The pale blue dot has given 25 years of wonder so far, it really puts things into perspective. Literally.

"New Zealand Police"
Talking about getting things in perspective, lots of us moan about our jobs. It’s easy to do, and it vents frustration. The majority of us have it easy though. I saw a story about 2 policemen in New Zealand, saving a woman from a sinking car. To the woman it was a potentially life ending situation.

The 2 policemen? Well, PCs Paul Watts and Simon Russell, described as heroes, said it was ‘just another day’.

Think of all the people all over the world that put their lives at risk everyday to save others. Yes, it’s their job, but they have my full respect, and again, it helps to give perspective when the easy moans about jobs start to surface.

"Peter & Laura Elliott"
Peter Elliott was the Captain for a flight the other day, taking people on holiday from Birmingham to Spain. Nothing unusual there you might think, and you’d be right.

Except…

The Senior First Officer flying next to him was his daughter, Laura, and that made them the first father/daughter combo to fly for the same commercial airline.

Laura didn’t always want to be a pilot, it was only after graduating that she decided to give it a go, having been given a trial flight present by…her father.

Good luck to both of them I say, and I’ve written before about whether following a parent’s career path doesn’t necessarily always make it easier!

Ok, that’s it for this week – let me know your thoughts on perspective, maybe on following your own parents’ career choices, and as always, I’d appreciate sharing the newsletter to anyone you think might enjoy it.

‘Til Next Time,
Health & Hapiness,
Gordon
P.S. Here’s that other article I mentioned:
Goal Achievement – Do You Wish Your Mum Was A Footballer?
P.P.S. I write about keeping perspective in my book
‘Tranform Your Life in 21 Days!’ – have you grabbed your copy yet?

Do leave a comment!

Leave a Reply to Sandy X

10 Comments

  • Not sure if it’s my migraine or the article, I am getting headache, too! Lol

    What’s the image Gordon? Last shot from the Voyager or the eclipse? Didn’t hear anything about the eclipse here over last few days. Either I missed it or it wasn’t avai in this part of the world.

    Nice story about the father-daughter pilot team. Inspiring n heartwarming!

    • The image is that shot from Voyager. You see the big brown band going down the rigth hand side? Well, halfway down that band is the blue dot – that’s us, little old us, from 4 billion miles away!
      Amazing eh!

      • Oh yes I saw it. Happened that I zoomed in and it’s right in front of me. Got to zoom out n back in just to make sure that’s the one 😀 Super duper cool! Must show my daughter. She would be amazed!

        That also shows how minute we all are. The space is so huge (any bigger word than this???), we are not even a small little speck in the whole Universe. What is the ‘whole’ anyway…no one knows!

        Cheers! Hope you hv fully recovered from your cold.

        • oh yes, it really puts things in perspective – or at least it should do!
          My cold is *still* hanging on, a week and a half now, bordering on manflu 😉

    • Ah, thanks Susan!
      I normally cover things that catch my eye during the week, sometimes there are more than others!
      There’s always the article linked top at the bottom (plus my book, of course!) 😉
      cheers,
      Gordon

  • Hi Gordon,

    One of my dreams is to get a great telescope. I love to look at the stars. planets, harvest moons, things like that. I missed the voyager photo of the earth and the blue dot. I love Star Trek.

    My father was a pilot for the Air Force. He spent a lot of time away from home. He passed away. I never wanted to be a pilot. I followed my mother’s tune. She was very creative.

    I really felt bad for the woman stuck in the car in the water and the people who saved her. She was scared to death.

    Enjoyed your post as always.

    You have an awesome Friday and weekend!

    Linda

  • Hi Gordon – interesting about career choices. You know our Rory and up until he was 13, he wanted to be a chef. He had never wavered at all from it. Then, when he came round with us, The Bluesmothers, on gigs, he got into sound engineering, helping Tim down at the Billabong initially, got some work experience with Jim Riley and never looked back. He has his own sound engineering business now, which he’s built up from the time he was 15. I used to drop him at gigs on my way to a gig, then he’d get a taxi home with some of the money he earned. Then he passed his driving test and started to build his business bigger and bigger – does massive venues now and all from coming round on gigs with us.

    • That’s a perfect example Liz, not only of being influenced by parent careers, but also about taking action to get himself on the learning curve, and then putting on lots of good old fashioned hard work!
      Great to see 😉