GENESIS - A Tease from the Gods
Posted by Saddat Adutwum | Posted in African Trumpet News,
Every Astronaut or an astronaut-to-be knows John Gillespie Magee, Jr's. poem high flight, which captures a certain poignancy and unease that can only be felt, not shared. When I first read John's poem as an undergraduate at Central State University, it offered me a glimpse into what one would experience should they start moving away from earth at sound's speed. This poem represents, holistically, the life of a young soldier who gave up opportunities at Yale University and died at the prime of life doing what he loved best-Flight.
For many of us, we may never experience this phenomenon or the astonishment of walking in another world or delving into its mystic unknowns. Coming close to being part of this experience is satisfying. I have reproduced from Wikipedia.org John's original poem, which he wrote before he was killed in the Battle of Britain:
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of-wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor even eagle flew-
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
This, undoubtedly, is a powerful testament to the thrill of flight. My childhood in its innate physicality did not have space in it except for the multiple planes that flew over my grandparent's hamlet in East Legon a surburb in Accra, Ghana.
In this dreamy world of childhood fantasy and its embedded hopelessness was the yearn for a Livingstonian swagger across the unknown.
I still remember the Pan Am flight with its massive deck and blue-white strip.
It came unusually close to the ground near our home before landing at the Kotoka International Airport, which was a few miles down the road from us. Its imposing periodic presence; mystic and daring on approached, had in its manifestation a yet-to-conquer world.
This was then. The rigors of
academia had to be conquered before any fantasies were to be tackled. On this end, my maternal grandparents were the spigot. Immigrants from the Upper West Region, they had experienced the hopeless of life in pre-independent Ghana and the noisome challenges of being a Northerner in Southern Ghana at the time.
In these challenges, they found surreal strength, which they passed slowly but firmly down to the proceeding generations. Failure for us, no matter the circumstances, was not an option to even contemplate.
These two individuals more than anyone else were the most influential people in my entire life. Interred today in busy East Legon, my life has been a manifestation of their relentless quest to carve a place in life for us. Their memories today, fading slowly with the rustic effect of time, still have with them the sense of promised yet to be fulfilled.
On my way to the United States Grandma said: "You have made me proud today. From whence I came, I could not have imagined today. You will not return to see me alive but I'll always be with you in spirit as you journey across the fortified barriers and boundaries of nature. Be brave." With these parting words was unleashed an ethos.
I was born at the University Hospital in Legon and my formative years were in East Legon. This was before it became a sprawling metropolis. Then, it was the darkest place on earth. The glimpse of light from the University of Ghana periodically stole its way in our direction on windy nights. It was by no means melancholic but just the sign of the times.
My Mom and her siblings were born in Labadi. My parents met in Accra, where Mom was an Agric Extension officer and my Dad was an Assistant at the Brazilian Embassy in Accra after graduating from the Pitman School in Cape Coast.
My father later on went to work for my great uncle, Kaleo Jatoe, when he was the Minister for Transport and Communication in the Second Republic.
I attended the University Staff Village Primary & Middle Schools, Legon, where I was not the favorite of any teacher. Those who remember me then talked about it with admiration and a sense of nostalgia. My determination to make headway in life at that time was self-evident. I proceeded to St. Louis Prep School, WA, and graduated from Nandom Secondary School with a distinction. I then spent a year in lower sixth form at St. Augustine's College in Cape Coast, before coming to the United States on a Head of State Scholarship.
I graduated BS (Highest Distinction) in Manufacturing Engineering from Central State University at Wilberforce, OH, a Masters Degree, Engineering Mechanics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg VA, and Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from University of Dayton, Dayton, OH.
My first job was with Siemens, where I made fundamental contributions to Computer Aided Process Architecture and Automation resulting in over 27 US/European/World Patents Applications in the areas of computer aided design, artificial intelligence and data processing. This established Siemens Hearing Solutions as the most comprehensive end-to-end hearing systems solutions provider in the world.
For these contributions, I received the 2008 Black Engineer of the Year Most Promising Scientist, 2008 New Jersey State Healthcare Business (NJBiz) Innovator Hero Award and the 2008 Central State University CBI Alumnus of the Year.
It was impossible not to feel this euphoria about the pride they attached to these famous alumni, who breached the bounds of earth as part of humankind's unyielding quest to unravel the mysteries of the unknown.
During my sojourn at these institutions, I was completely enthralled by the pictures of their graduates that adorned their hallways. "It would be nice to be one of 'em fellas one day." These were the men and women, who have reached into skies and have come close to touching God's face. This was the reverence, which till this day, I still attach to the Space exploration.
Additionally, the desert-like environment in Nandom often reminded me of pictures of Mars from NASA. In fact, I came to the conclusion that if one could survive the harsh climatic conditions that Nandom offered one could survive Mars.
Finally, the graceful landings of airplanes over our home and the sporadic aerobatics over the skies of our home by famous ace Air Force Pilots such as Rawlings, Bannerman, and many others lit the unending desire for flight.
Houston in January 2009 was a decisive encounter. Men and women from various stations in life arrived. Each candidate had a unique story and countless accomplishments to attest to. It was an encounter that whispered unspoken words: "Anyone of these people could be an astronaut. You can only be happy for them if they are chosen and not you. Defeatist as this may sound; the caliber of these candidates spoke for itself. Being a realist, I was opened to all other possibilities including not making it to the finals.
Nearly two months went by before the final calls came. The list had dwindled to forty-seven finalist from one hundred and ten candidates. The initial candidate list was in excess of three thousands candidates. This remarkable outcome at the time shifted focus to how many people NASA could support from a budget perspective. In July 2009, the final phone calls came-nine people had been chosen from the finalist! I did not make the final cut.
We are all born with the instinctive yearn to win and hence disappointment is the usual outcome when things do not go as planned. My case was different. I had overcome many death-defying experiences and to reach that far was a testament to the human experience.
Ten years earlier as a graduate student at the University of Dayton, I had survived a gunshot in my apartment by a still-to-be-determined assailant. Crawling through that experience came with a fortified sense of strive. I never knew that I would walk again let alone fit enough to undergo the rigors of this candidacy.
In this very outcome sublimed as it may seem I came close to changing the course of history. The human spirit, in its intractable simplicity and unflinching quest for adventure, has served me well.
Today, I know many astronauts. I would know many more from the pool I interviewed with and an experience of a lifetime. Mine was a testament to America's great promise, where everyone can dare dream and the rigors of the Ghanaian educational system. It is also attribute to the many angels along the way, who became a part of the dream. And to the furrows of history never again would it be bared.
