I happened to glance at an article this morning about the first ever all female spacewalk. To be honest, I was underwhelmed. Do I think it is important? No. Do I really care? No. Is it because I am a man? No.
How significant is the “first” at anything? The first man, the first woman, the first ape, the first asian seriously…who cares?
I believe it undersells the accomplishment itself. Accomplishing a goal should be the most important thing. If the goal is to be the first at something, I think that is a sad goal. Ok, you made it. You are the first at whatever. So. What.
It is almost as ridiculous as video game accomplishments. Who gives a rip if you have half a million xBox gamer points? I guess you do but what difference does it make? You can’t do anything meaningful with them. Before you start to say “Well, I can use them to upgrade a skin or get a better weapon” let me stop you right there. Again, in the real world that doesn’t matter. Those points are as meaningless as the hours you spend in front of your gaming console.
It may be sad that this is coming from a gamer but I can distinguish the difference between reality and fantasy. I’m all for the the escapism that movies, video games, and other mindless entertainment provide. I feel that society concentrates on the wrong things. We watch other people live their lives from the comfort of our living rooms and that in and of itself, is sad. Because we do so much of it, the folks who participate in sports, actors in movies, and even the folks who create reality TV are raking in the money.
All because we are too lazy to do anything meaningful with our lives. Except perhaps, be the first woman to spacewalk. If she was the first person to ever spacewalk I think you’d have something. We’ve already conquered spacewalking and whether a woman, man, ape, Asian, Chinese, Italian, Spaniard, or my kitty cat does it now it is still just a spacewalk that has been done before.
So in conclusion. I do not care about a stupid spacewalk that has been done by many other people time and time again.