Seeing Wonders
in Usual Phenomena
Most people are struck only by the wonders of unusual events. However, a truly intelligent person sees wonders even in seemingly ordinary or usual phenomena.
In 1957, Russia sent its first Sputnik satellite into space. Then, in 1981, America sent its first space shuttle, Columbia, into space, with two people on board. It was made to be used for around a hundred space journeys.
Columbia weighed around 75 tonnes costing a huge amount of money, and it took nine years to construct. It travelled at 26,000 miles per hour, remaining in space for 54 hours and revolving around the earth 36 times. It traversed a total distance of around 10,00,000 miles and then returned to Earth, landing in the Californian desert. When it entered the atmosphere back to Earth, its friction caused its outside frame to shoot up to 1,15,000 degrees Celsius, but arrangements had been made to maintain a comfortable temperature inside for the two people aboard. As a result, the shuttle landed at almost precisely the appointed time—with a difference of just 10 seconds! Some 2,00,000 people gathered to see Columbia land. Besides, millions more saw the event on television.
John Young was one of the two people on board the Columbia flight. After being in a state of weightlessness for many hours, he was so stunned on returning to earth that he burst out: “What a way to come to California!”
John Young found all of this remarkable—travelling in space in a shuttle, landing in California in this fashion, and so on. However, the matter is that everything in this world is astounding! Every journey, whether on foot or in a vehicle or a space shuttle, entails so many factors and cosmic causes that if you think about it, an ordinary journey can seem so unique that you will cry out, “My walking, on my two feet, from one place to another is as amazing as travelling in the Columbia shuttle into space and landing in the Californian desert!”
Most people are struck only by the wonders of unusual events. However, a truly intelligent person sees wonders even in seemingly ordinary or usual phenomena.
