Monday 3rd November 2008, 15:29How a telescope helped me see things the same. It was my birthday last month and my children watched excitedly as I opened my birthday present. It was a large box (so no chocolate) it did not smell (so not aftershave) and it was too big to be a pair of socks.
Finally when I was able to rip off all the wrappers my gift was revealed. A telescope. I had always thought it would be great to be able to gaze at the stars through a telescope. But as I grew older I figured I would never get round to space exploration. I had always admired Sir Patrick Moore when I watched him on “Sky at Night”. I rarely understood what he was saying but I was sucked into his passion, his boyish enthusiasm for his interest and the energy he put into sharing his exploration of the stars with anybody still watching the BBC just before the national anthem played at the end of the day. So I was very excited, what a wonderful surprise. We unpacked and assembled the many parts, trying to read the operation manual while we waited until it went dark. Not only was this a telescope but it had become a family project.
Eventually we ventured out into the garden, me tripping over in the process. Using the computer tracking system we managed to lock the telescope onto the moon. As we all tried to peer down the lens and tried to focus the image, all of a sudden – the surface of the moon was there – right in front of our eyes.
It was amazing. Apologies to any experts out there reading this. But this was my first glimpse of the surface of the moon. I had watched television pictures, “One small step……..” I have seen pictures in books. But there was something very different about looking at the moon that night.
All of my life the moon has been there. All of my life I have looked at the moon and seen the reflection of the earth on the face of the moon. It has never appeared to me as anything amazing, it was just the moon. Sitting there in the sky – doing what the moon does. Waxing and waning. Just the good old reliable moon.
But tonight, it was amazing. It really was amazing. There is this enormous ball of material floating above me, spinning round, for millions of years. Looking at the surface I could see craters, valleys, scorch marks. Places where parts of other planets have bounced off the moon on their journey to eternity. It was not a third party experience anymore. It was not a TV screen, or a professional picture. It was the surface of the moon and I was sat in my back garden looking at it first hand.
As the night wore on and the chill started to bite into our bones we decided to pack up and move inside. I had to take one last look. And confirm that this “thing” had always been there. It was not bigger, smaller, lighter or darker. It was not square or triangular, nor made of cheese. It was no different tonight than it was any other night of my life and yet tonight it was different for me. Tonight as I looked more closely, with better focus, as I took the time to study this thing which I have taken for granted every night of my life it appeared as something very, very different – but the same.
Why have I asked you to read this journey of discovery with me today? Well, that night I started to realise that in my life there are lots of things which I take for granted. Lots of things which I pass everyday and fall into the trap of seeing what I think I have always seen before. Lots of people who I think I know. I think I know their journey, their life and how they arrived here today. I see our staff delivering a service to our customers, our partners working alongside us, the people, families and communities standing in line waiting for their chance. I see my family and friends and people in my community and I think I know who they are and what they are about.
And so I just wanted to share with you that I realised, again, that this is a big trap we can all fall into. Because the closer I look the more I see; some amazing staff who do astonishing things with our customers every hour of every day. I see customers who are real heroes in the way they keep their families together, children who battle with issues which would crush most adults, I see communities who deserve better, I see warmth and love and commitment from people who quietly want to make a difference to people’s lives. I am blessed with a wonderful family, I live in a community where there are people who care and I see people every day in pain because somebody or something is stealing their dignity. Taking away from them all the foundations they have built. I see people slip sliding and they have so little to take hold of that at times it seems that all is lost.
My telescope taught me that my world is not bland. My world is not full of sameness. My world deserves a fresh look and a refocus. In my world there are lots of good people who walk alongside me everyday, thank you. And also in my world there are lots of people in need. Lots of people in pain who need that little chance of somebody, you, maybe me, maybe both of us, to decide that today is the day “You can Improve Your Life”.
The work we do, the chance to support and facilitate a transformation is a gift. After my telescope I see it all very much the same, but different as it always has been. Thank you for the energy and passion you bring to our work.
Thanks
Roy
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