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William Shatner became the oldest human being to step on the outskirts of earth and dipped his little toe into the emptiness of space. Shatner talks about his trip in his new book, “Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder”, and was surprised by how it felt when he finally stared out into space.

The Blue Origin ship traveled 62 miles and just passed the Karman Line, recognized as the separation between Earth and Space. Shatner who has been thrilled by space and space exploration for years was hoping for joy and revelation once he was in space, instead, he felt a sense of grief. The book recounts the brief moment Shatner floated weightlessly and looked into space and say, “no mystery, no majestic awe to behold… all I saw was death.”

It turns out that sense of darkness and death is shared by others who have been to space, so many in fact it’s called the “Overview Effect”. The planet’s fragility becomes overwhelming when seen from space. The news isn’t all bad, space may look dark and empty, but the earth looks beautiful. If you have ever seen a picture of the earth taken from space, the image of what looks like a perfect circle floating in the immense darkness of space can be soothing. A place we call home, a place of light.

In The Atlantic a wonderful story about “What You Do”. One of the publishers of With A Shout started his first business in the early 90s while he was still in college, after the IRS taught our illustrious publisher about income tax, he was forced into the corporate world to learn a few of the real rules of business. From our publisher: At the young age of 23 I worked for Central Parking Systems as an Assistant Facilities Manager for a hotel valet parking garage. That was the beginning of “making up what I did for a living”. I have started 10 more businesses since then and after telling people what I do and getting too many questions, I just dropped down to “I’m a consultant.

After a quick survey in the office, here is our favorite story of what you do. A friend of a friend works in security and private investigation in Nashville TN. As a prominent P.I. in Nashville, many of his clients are in the music business. After getting tired of answering questions about Taylor Swift, the P.I. started to tell people that he sold Life Insurance. Why Life Insurance Salesman? When you tell someone you sell life insurance, that’s the end of all conservations. Brilliant!!

Matt Skiba, the talented guitarist from Alkaline Trio has played and performed with Blink 182 over the last several years, including the last 2 Blink 182 albums. With the Reunion looming, many have asked, “what’s going on with Matt?”

Matt has not responded to questions since the big news broke, but Tom DeLong did: Tom sent a message to Matt and thanked him for stepping in and stepping up.

Thanks Matt!

Click on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen on Spotify.

Be Good,

Johnny