Medium – Reggie O’Hare Gibson
“The year was 1978. I was a 5th grader at Oscar DePriest Elementary School on Chicago’s West Side. My teacher was Mr. Green, a portly man with glasses, graying hair, and a nature I now understand as mildly acerbic. Because of his tendency to be exacting with his pupils, when he was out of earshot we referred to him as Mr. Mean, Mr. Mean Greens, or some variation thereof. One late spring day, Mr. Green was to teach us about our solar system. He reached above the green chalkboard and pulled down a rolled up map depicting our sun orbited by — at that time — nine planets. Mr. Green wanted to show the class the path taken by the then recently launched Voyager 1 space probe as it shot past Mars and spiraled through cosmic silence toward the gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn. He was excited that this little piece of human technology, hundreds of millions of miles from Earth, would eventually leave our solar system. And, in the event that some alien intelligence should happen upon it, they would come across a golden album with songs, greetings, and a map of where to find us. But if otherwise unimpeded, Voyager 1 would continue into interstellar space. Into the vast blackness.”(more)