Sally Ride: Those Who Have Gone Before and "Heroes"

The Ann Reed song "Heroes" was much in my mind during FGC Gathering this year.

In part, because Those Who Have Gone Before, and Those Who Will Come After, were much on my mind and in my heart during Gathering: my, and our, Ancestors and Descendants, spiritual and genetic; those who have inspired and will inspire me, those who have paved the way, those who have given me life in so many ways, those to whom I owe in some sense the work of my life, of my hands, of each day, to whom I am obligated in many ways small and large.  Those who have inspired me and to whom I owe it not to give up.  Those who have taught me joy.

My grandmother is one of those people.  She was very much with me.

People who were present at Gathering are some of those people.

"What can I learn from you...?"

I learned today of Sally Ride's death.

Dr. Sally Ride is one of those people for me, for all of her life, but especially when I was in high school and college.  She is also one of the women named in Ann Reed's song.

What can I learn from you?
In your lifetime, in what you've been through?
How'd you keep your head up and hold your pride
In an insane world how d'you keep on tryin'

One life can tell the tale
That if you make the effort, you cannot fail
By your life you tell me it can be done
By your life's the courage to carry on (to keep on tryin')

...Sojourner Truth, Eleanor Roosevelt,
Katharine Hepburn, Sally Ride
Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman
Annie Sullivan, Gertrude Stein...    

Today, I also learned that Sally Ride was a lesbian, and that she and her partner had been together for 27 years.

I hold her and her partner, Dr. Tam O' Shaughnessy, in my heart with tenderness.

• Here is Dr. Sally Ride's obituary in the New York Times:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/24/science/space/sally-ride-trailblazing-astronaut-dies-at-61.html?pagewanted=all

• Here is a slideshow of pictures from different times in her career: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/07/24/science/20120724_RIDE.html

• Here is Dr. Sally Ride's obituary in the Clarion-Ledger; it's a bit more personal:  http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20120724/NEWS/120724009/Sally-Ride-obit-survived-by-partner-Tam-O-Shaughnessy-legacy-first-lady-space?odyssey=nav|head

UPDATE, 25 July:

If you read only one article about Dr. Sally Ride, please read this one.

"The Astronaut Bride," by Amy Davidson
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/07/the-astronaut-bride.html#ixzz21e8IDKU3