This thread:
made me think about Spirit and Opportunity and what they have come to symbolize for some or many of us.
To me, their very names have defined exactly what they are.
What have they meant to you?
A job! (with a paycheck!) 
-dave
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It’s a government job, you’re competent, you won’t be fired.
holds on to AF ID
The rovers represent a time, when kids would watch on TV the shuttle launches, or the first rovers landing on the moon. Back when the biggest thing in the world was that hope and promise of technology, the internet, and space, not just enough Hanna Montana to numb the pain of the real world. I miss the days when real life inspired kids and made them wonder, not some fake singer on the Disney Channel.
They mean exactly that: spirit and opportunity. Not only the reminder of what was once the spirit of the world as they were captured by Sputnik or the lunar landing, but also the opportunity to do greater things like landing men on Mars and developing an even greater understanding of our universe and what it beholds. The opportunity for a return to that spirit of exactly what Joe Matt just expained: students excited and driven by real, productive things (like scientists and somewhat more intelligent shows like Bill Nye and Carmen San Diego) and not a phony TV star (Hannah Montana).
Besides their names, they mean tenacity, audacity, endurance, hope, innovation, progress, and a step in the right direction for humanity.
I would much rather have my tax dollars go into programs like this than wars based on dubious intelligence. Because while the latter often represents the lesser traits of humanity, the prior brings out the best in us. It’s when we as a society are at our peak, intrinsically optimistic, innovating, expanding and progressing forward. It’s when we are channeling our creative and intellectual energies into positive sources, into creating instead of destroying.
The problem with the world today is that as of late there have been too many people who are pessimistic or cynical. Where have the days gone when we as a society had a common trust in our ability to progress forward and overcome any obstacle?*
That’s one of the reasons why I’ve always loved Epcot, or just WDW in general. Once you go there, there’s just an inherent optimism in the place that makes you truly believe that whatever obstacle is thrown at us, humanity will overcome to enjoy better days. But nor do they try to pretend too much like they are perfect; they are constantly seeking to improve their parks, attractions, and content**, in much the same way in which the United States was founded: as a quest to make a more perfect Union.
- If a certain video on Youtube by will.i.am will over six million views is any indication, this optimism is latent inside of us, waiting for a chance when society will again cherish it instead of using scare tactics and fear mongering to bully it into hiding.
** Even though 99.8% of the time if you see construction workers there during park hours they are “fake”. No seriously. Watch them for ten minutes, and you will see that they all follow a repeatable cycle on about a five or ten minute interval. They never actually do anything. They are just there so people walking by “see construction work”, and better equate that as a work in progress. All the real construction work takes place at night.
I remember watching the first two (both at school and home) almost everyday in elementary school (as well as Reading Rainbow and the Magic School Bus). As for the John Glenn launch (I was in fourth grade then), they had all the students from fourth and fifth grades cram into one of the few classrooms with cable television to watch the launch live. (Everyone was getting anxious that because of the minor launch delays we might not have been able to see it before school let out for the day, though we were all relieved that at about 2:30pm it finally took off.)
Nowadays we have No Child Left Behind and more number two pencils and bubble sheets than you can shake a stick at. I feel sorry for kids nowadays.
INSPIRATION! Especially if you were involved in FLL Mission Mars at the time they first landed.