Inspiring Hope in a Dark Time

March 24, 2020 • By Dan Barstow, CASIS Education Manager

I need to speak from my heart here. The news we are seeing and hearing every day is so tragic all over the world. So many are suffering, and all of us feel so vulnerable. It pains the heart and calls on us to figure out how to rise and shine and do whatever we can to help.

And now I think of young people at home, feeling their world so suddenly tossed upside down, worried about their family and friends and their own futures. What a wall they’re hitting.

In our goals for our work to offer learn-at-home opportunities for young people, we included the goal “inspire hope.”  I think the educational activities from ISSInternational Space Station National Lab partners convey a subtle but deep message—astronauts see the world from space and want to share its beauty and its wholeness, they read books from the cupolaA small module on the International Space Station with seven windows for observing and photographing Earth, spacecraft arrivals and departures, and spacewalks. to connect from the lonely outpost and reach young people, they do medical experiments to search for cures, and they help young people see the power of the mysterious universe to pull us to explore.

Maybe through this work, in this dark time, we can do our contribution to help young people feel hope, and we wish health and safety to you and your loved ones.