9.4.2013 – On Board Cruise Ship. At Sea.
Today I met one of the most eminent astrologers and robotic scientists in the world…….. and I was truly fascinated to hear about his life in the former Soviet Union, his brushes with the KGB and how, in Hollywood, he’d had the dubious honour to sit behind Tom Cruise in a Down Town Theatre, whilst bumping shopping trolleys with Goldie Hawn in the local supermarket!
Professor David Southwood, formerly Director of Science and Robotic Exploration at the European Space Agency in Paris, recounted the life of one of history’s great astrologers, Galileo. He had the temerity to suggest that the SUN was at the centre of the universe and not the EARTH; we revolved round ‘it’ and not the other way round!
That upset the Catholic church who duly excommunicated him, and it wasn’t till a few centuries later that Pope John Paul II ‘rehabilitated’ Galileo (let him back in!).
Now, the story is almost anecdotal but, at the time, how must Galileo have felt? He knew he was right and that the entire world was wrong. But, he stuck to his guns and, eventually, the world came round to his way of thinking, finally conceding that he was a genius, not a dangerous fruit cake!
It is so easy to be a sheep, but so much harder to follow the lonely road. Seek to emulate Galileo when you know you have valid reasoning.
