[meteorite-list] A Few Musings

From: Greg Redfern <gredfern_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:10:03 2004
Message-ID: <NBBBJPGEPBMHMOJGKPFFGENOCOAA.gredfern_at_earthlink.net>

Good Evening Everyone,

   Just a few thoughts to share this evening if you don't mind.

   The true power of this List has been shown over the past two weeks or so
and I would like to share what it means to me (and hopefully all of us).

  Steve Arnold (of Chicago, not IMB) brought the PF fall to the attention of
most of us. Then the intrepid hunts of many of our colleagues brought us on
site information and ultimately, specimens to admire and/or buy. Then we
learned first hand the total aftermath of a significant fall on a major
urban area - all of the good, the bad and the downright ugly.

  But it was the LIST that gave us all of these experiences!

    For Tom (please do not quit the list because of meteorite envy...we ALL
suffer from it Tom, believe me!!!!) it was hard to bear reading about all of
the meteorite trading going on as it was for most of us. But there are
pieces of PF to be had at reasonable cost, if not size. Just to have a
fragment of this is beyond comprehension!

   All of us, when you get right down to it, LOVE meteorites. Each that I
own is part of me....I do not think I could bear to part with them which is
why I decided I could not ever sell any I acquired. Meteorites are the
closest to space any of us will ever get. My God, we can go to our
collections and based on what we have collected touch a comet, the asteroid
Vesta, THE MOON AND MARS (!!!), PRE-SOLAR GRAINS....4.5+ billion years of
history concerning the Universe.

  That is what the List is all about dear colleagues...the rush we get when
we are on the hunt and/or the quest for up close and personal knowledge of
our place in the Universe. NONE of us will ever own all the meteorites in
the world which means there is plenty of room for all of us.

   And you know what the neatest thing is in this passion of ours? We NEVER
know what is going to happen in the next second as our planet sweeps through
space.

   Thank you Art, and all of you on this List, for giving ourselves a means
availlable no where else to pursue and pontificate about our passsion.

My best to you all,

Greg

Greg Redfern
2003 NASA Solar System Ambassador
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ambassador/
IMCA #5781
www.meteoritecollectors.org
Received on Sat 05 Apr 2003 11:06:56 PM PST