FEBRUARY 20th - A Lack of Fear



On this day in 1962, John Glenn became the 1st American to orbit the Earth in outer space aboard the Friendship 7. He did so three times, and his little trip wasn’t without some hiccups, mainly being that the heat shield was loose, which sounds like a fairly important thing that you wouldn’t want being loose. Glenn made it back in one piece, although a little sweaty. I’ve always wondered if vehicle malfunctions cease to bother you after you’ve had one in space. I mean if John Glenn or Jim Lovell got a flat tire on the freeway after their experiences in space, would they still have been annoyed? At least a tad bit, I gotta think. No matter how many times you’ve been in space, no one wants to change a tire on the freeway. But I also think the element of danger wasn’t quite as prevalent for them. Sure, some drunken idiot could have crashed into them effectively ending all of their higher-motor functioning capability, but getting stranded in outer space or burning up reentering the Earth’s atmosphere seems to be a more immediate fear. I mean Glenn couldn’t have been scared of much after almost burning to death in a hunk of metal. Seems like it could be an alternative to the everyone-always-dying-in-order-to-forge-a-superhero comic book origin story. Not saying Bruce Wayne should be an astronaut, but somebody could have a crazy near death experience in outer space, live through it, and then not be scared of any situation. Burning building? No biggie. I almost burned up coming back from outer space. Hostage situation? Dude! I slingshot around the moon with no navigation, Bro. I can free hostages in my sleep. Call him Jim Glenn as a subtle homage, and his superpower is his insane lack of fear. Might need to make him bulletproof though. Because a bullet will rip through a lack of fear like crap through a goose.

This day has been Marked.

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