I thought the Bagley cartoon in yesterday's Tribune was appropriate to the Shuttle event.  He quoted a famous Jack London poem:

I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a birlliant blaze,
than it should be stifled by dry rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor,
every atom of me in magnificent glow,
than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.

I shall use my time.

Jack London