Sunday, November 2, 2008

Space Sports?!


In 1969, people were amazed that two men, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, walked on the moon. In the early 2oth century, idealists were dreaming about the day an American would walk on the moon, but pragmatists thought it would be an impossible task.
As I was surfing the web, I saw a headline that shocked me, "For Ex-N.F.L. Star, a Dream of Sports in Space." Ken Harvey, a retired Washington Redskin football player, has high hopes for "Float Ball." This would be a sport, a mixture of "basketball, football and the Lionel Richie video for 'Dancing on the Ceiling'", played in space. This "space sport" would be very expensive unless the rate for space travel decreased dramatically. One thing that caught my eye was when Ken Harvey said,"Sometimes it doesn't happen in your generation, but you plan to see it in the next generation." When I read that, I immediately thought of how the first Puritans were trying to set up a better place in America for their children. The Puritans had a dream to live life with religious freedom, and Ken Harvey has a dream of playing sports in space.
In my previous blog, I established how I am an idealist. If Ken Harvey has a passion for "Float Ball", I believe that he can make his dream a reality. A realist would say that playing sports in space is almost impossible, but I beg to differ. If one man can make a space traveling device that is cheap and affordable, sports in space might become a reality. I am positive that many people would be interested in playing if it was affordable. I hope that Ken Harvey stays optimistic and tries to find a way to make his dream into a reality.

2 comments:

Max Rice said...

There is a reason why dreams occur in your head, because most of the time that is where it belongs. Realism should always be more favored than idealism. People can still be optimistic and realistic at the same time. The reason why people must be realistic is because we live in the real world, and im not talking about that lame mtv show. Pragmatists are realists. They think with their brain, not with their heart. If Ken Harvey wants to make "Float ball" a reality, he should come up with a realistic plan to do it, and if he cant he should get a job. To quote Rocky Balboa "The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place" people have to think pragmatically in order to survive. People shouldnt say I want to fly, they should ask how can I fly? A pragmitist would build an airplane, an idealist would sleep. Pragmitism doesn't prohibit thinking outside the box, but calls for realistic solutions not hallucinations.

Rosie S said...

Who knows though? Maybe Ken Harvey, or his children, will live to see the day when "spaceball" exists. After all, a company called Bigelow Aerospace is already beginning to send out prototypes for their extraterrestrial hotel. Obviously, people will have to be pragmatic about actually implementing their ideas, however-can any sort of lunar recreation really be considered pragmatic? Probably not..