Days of Remembrance

The lat­ter part of Jan­u­ary and ear­ly Feb­ru­ary is potent: it is a time that we reflect upon and hon­or the fall­en crews of Apol­lo 1, Chal­lenger, and Colum­bia, and all those who have lost their lives in the cause of explo­ration. Dur­ing these days of remem­brance, I would like to encour­age us all to reflect upon our space heroes while lis­ten­ing to the music of “Colum­bia: We Dare to Dream.”

Con­tin­ue read­ing “Days of Remem­brance”

preface from Columbia album

(this intro is from the lin­er-notes to my CD Colum­bia: We Dare to Dream)

I did­n’t know them.  I didn’t know their names, or that they had been in space for six­teen days, or that they were called the “STS-107” crew, or even what “STS” meant.  But I was sit­ting next to my piano on the morn­ing of Feb­ru­ary 1st, 2003 when I heard the news… the awful news that the space shut­tle Colum­bia had just bro­ken apart upon reen­try, 200,000 feet high in the skies over Texas, and that the entire crew had undoubt­ed­ly per­ished.  It was unfath­omable.  I hadn’t known them, that crew of sev­en, but my heart was sud­den­ly sear­ing with pain for their fam­i­lies.

Con­tin­ue read­ing “pref­ace from Colum­bia album”

Heroes

(lin­er notes for track 6)

He is the son
who puts his anger aside
and brave­ly choos­es to wear a flight suit
just like his father wore.
She is the daugh­ter
who helps her moth­er to cope
when­ev­er they think of
the wed­ding ring
that was nev­er found
in all the fields of Texas.
Con­tin­ue read­ing “Heroes”