The R.B.D. Song of the Day | Visions of the Future

They Might Be Giants, "The Ballad of Davy Crockett (In Outer Space)" from Here Comes Science (The Last Angry Spaceman)

Captain's Log:

"Davy, Davy Crockett,
King of this brand-new place,
Davy, Davy Crockett,
Traveling through outer space…

"Davy, Davy Crockett,
The buckskin astronaut,
Davy, Davy Crockett,
There's more than we were taught…"

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, here on Earth, or redder on the other side of the fence as is the proposed case on exoplanet Kepler-186f, because times change—art, manners, & prevailing morals come in & out of fashion; technology & techniques advance—but the essential nature of man remains the same. In the timeless words of Saint Augustine, "our hearts are restless, O Lord, until they rest in you." This restlessness is not to be lamented, it is an integral part of who we are, of how we are meant to experience the exile that is this life. This restlessness drives us to cross oceans & tame continents, to close old frontiers & open new frontiers, to conquer Mount Everest & explore the Challenger Deep, to scan the skies to discover new stars & nebulae & probe the human genome to cure disease & relieve suffering. This restlessness drives us, both individually & collectively. I hope that within my lifetime that restlessness will drive us to land men on Mars, the Red Planet. I hope that no matter how long it takes, decades or centuries, we will dispatch first robotic probes & then manned missions to distant solar systems. The exploration of outer space, like all science, is one indispensable path to discover the splendor of God's Creation. He made us to strive, to venture, & eventually to discover that this insatiable longing to dare, to challenge the unknown will always leave us envious & unsatisfied—convinced that the grass is redder on the other side, that we'll finally be happy & life will finally make sense if only we go one step further—'til we find rest in Him, the very thing for which we'd always been longing. Go boldly, He'll be with us 'til the end of the age.