While thinking about the news on the NASA budget today, I thought of the following story.

One time back in the 1960s, a NASA employee was roaming the halls of Kennedy Space Center.  He came across a group of three janitors cleaning a restroom.  Given his friendly nature, he stopped and approached the first one who seemed particularly dour.

“How’s it going?” he asked.  In response, the first janitor growled “How do you think it is going?  I’m stuck here cleaning toilets.”

Shocked, the employee decided to talk to the second janitor.  This guy seemed a little more excited about what he was doing.

“Hey, what are you doing?” he asked.  The second janitor looked at him with a spark of hope in his eye.  “I’m feeding my family,” he said.

Intrigued, the employee decided to go say hi to the third janitor.  This guy was humming and smiling while he was cleaning the restroom.

“Why are you so happy?” the employee asked.  The third janitor replied with a grin “because I’m sending man to the moon!”

The message?  The context is decisive.  In our lives, we control how we react to and how we perceive the world.

The new NASA budget is likely to bring out lots of folks living from different contexts.  Some of those will look like ”The Constellation Program shouldn’t be canceled” or “We are losing jobs in my state” or “We have no mission, no direction.”

I choose a different context:  the new budget is an opportunity.  An opportunity to transform our planet’s future in space.  An opportunity to engage the global community on a journey of exploration.

That sounds like fun.  What is your context?