“We choose to… because they are hard”
Last year I had the very cool impromptu-opportunity one warm summer evening to head down towards the park across from MIAD called Catalano Park at the south end of the 3rd Ward (MIAD is The Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design… where I went to school from 2001-2005) and check out an interesting traveling art-installation.
In case you hadn’t seen any of the news-coverage on the subject, there was a very large, inflatable moon that was internally lit, and hung from the boom of a large construction crane. It was levitated by thin dark cables that essentially disappeared into the darkness, making it seem as though the artificial moon was hanging directly above the crowds heads. It was a cool moment, and reading the “meaning” behind the installation brought a bit of insight into the short-lived event…
The artwork was part of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s moon-landing, and the year-long celebration was touring the US at the time. I think I liked it more than my kiddos did… they saw it as a giant balloon and were more excited by the fact that bedtime was delayed for that night.
The artwork was part of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s moon-landing, and the year-long celebration was touring the US at the time. I think I liked it more than my kiddos did… they saw it as a giant balloon and were more excited by the fact that bedtime was delayed for that night.
The artwork was part of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s moon-landing, and the year-long celebration was touring the US at the time. I think I liked it more than my kiddos did… they saw it as a giant balloon and were more excited by the fact that bedtime was delayed for that night.
But I think what excited me more than the simple idea of a floating mini-moon hovering above my head, and the live music being broadcast next door to an upbeat, happy crowd, was that Milwaukee had continued to introduce something special and unique to its history that evening. The city needs more of this… events built around ideas that will one-by-one alter perceptions of what wonders could be built. Fanciful things are essential to not just creatives, but the community as a whole. It’s these special, unique moments that I think kick the mind into a different type of thinking… and that’s how we expand.
Imagination is everywhere. And those who want to build something more out of the box need to connect… there’s power in numbers! We’re all under the same moon… and the only reason we sent astronauts there 50 years ago, was to prove that we could do something amazing… conventional or not. And it changed our world once we did it.
That crazy, dream literally brought the “space-age,” and it was the simple statement “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,” that gave us the world of today and tomorrow.