The dream is alive. Have you ever kept a life list? You know, a list of things that you
want to do before you die? A life list is like the ultimate to do list. Life lists are cool. They are a way of
committing to paper your goals and achievements that basically become mileposts in your life. Whether it’s traveling to
every continent, teaching English to tribes in Papua New Guinea, or just learning how to make the perfect tamale (in
Oaxaca, of course) a life list item is loaded with meaning and priority. Our life lists define us.
Well I have my own life list that I’ve kept for over 20 years now. It’s about a page long, and more or less
organized by priority, with the things I MOST want to accomplish up there at the top. And up there, in the top register
of THINGS TO DO, is one item that until just yesterday seemed impossible:
traveling to space. By God, it might actually happen
in my lifetime. Not that I didn’t think it would. I always kind of hoped it would be possible, but not until Rutan and
his SpaceShipOne won the X-prize did it seem so,
well, possible.
OK OK, a long-winded spiel, but honestly, if we’re talking about engaged travel, what could be more
phantasmagorically engaging than traveling into SPACE!? Man, if EVER there was an activity perfect for the engaged
traveler, it is space travel.
Anyway, so now we have Virgin media magnate Sir Richard Branson saying he will create the first
tourist space travel company. This
is all so very cool.