Stupid Letter of the Week

First the manddate preamble.  There are no stupid letters, just stupid people who write letters.  This week I have chosen a non-politiacal letter from Patti Downing of Parkville Missouri.

Earth-bound duty



I am just going to say what everyone is thinking: It is selfish for Mark Kelly to go on his fourth NASA space flight. The health of his wife, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, could decline, or she could die in a flash.


I cannot believe that Mr. Kelly would think two weeks in space was that important.


Yes, we all know how boring it is to sit in a hospital day after day. However, he could have gone to his work there in Houston and helped the next guy get ready for the flight.


Mr. Kelly will be thousands of miles away, playing macho “space cowboy” to escape. But the reality of his obligation is here on this planet.


We all must learn to know what is really important and what is just ego.

Patti Downing
Parkville

I am visuallizing Patti as a self-centered, judgemental witch who has a very bad marriage and a god complex.  I suppose the though never crossed her mind that Mark Kelly's decision to fly on the shuttle is none of her business, and to judge his action only tells us much about her mental state.  She is likely a controlling wife of a timid man, and one who dominates the home.  She also seems to know Mark Kelly's mind when she states that he traded boredom in a hospital for the excitement of space travel.  I would bet the thought process was far more complex, too much so for Patti's simple mind.

She is judgemental in that she has no idea what relationship Mark Kelly has with his wife, but has deemed his actions as selfish by taking time away from his recovering wife.  Maybe Gabrielle fully supports the decision.  I suspect that she would, knowing that his service to NASA was also service to a flight crew who had trained for over a year to perform this mission.

Ms. Downing, any one of us could "die in a flash".  That fact is not a good reason to quit living your life.  Thank you God for giving me a women so totally opposite of Patti Downing.  Life might be unbearable with a woman like her.