{"id":2,"date":"2013-01-07T14:58:33","date_gmt":"2013-01-07T20:58:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hanilives.com\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2013-03-25T21:15:50","modified_gmt":"2013-03-26T03:15:50","slug":"introduction","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/hanilives.com\/?page_id=2","title":{"rendered":"Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-437\" alt=\"txt-HanisStory\" src=\"https:\/\/hanilives.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/txt-HanisStory.png\" width=\"260\" height=\"70\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hanilives.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/txt-HanisStory.png 260w, https:\/\/hanilives.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/txt-HanisStory-150x40.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 260px) 100vw, 260px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Prefer to listen?\u00a0 Click here for audio:<br \/>\n<div id=\"mp3jWrap_0\" class=\"mjp-s-wrapper s-graphic unsel-mjp  verdana-mjp\" style=\"font-size:14px;\"><span id=\"playpause_wrap_mp3j_0\" class=\"wrap_inline_mp3j\" style=\"font-weight:700;\"><span class=\"gfxbutton_mp3j play-mjp\" id=\"playpause_mp3j_0\" style=\"font-size:14px;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span>&nbsp;<span class=\"group_wrap\"><span class=\"bars_mp3j\"><span class=\"loadB_mp3j\" id=\"load_mp3j_0\"><\/span><span class=\"posbarB_mp3j\" id=\"posbar_mp3j_0\"><\/span><\/span><span class=\"T_mp3j\" id=\"T_mp3j_0\" style=\"font-size:14px;\">1. Introduction<\/span><span class=\"indi_mp3j\" style=\"font-size:9.8px;\" id=\"statusMI_0\"><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div><span class=\"s-nosolution\" id=\"mp3j_nosolution_0\" style=\"display:none;\"><\/span><script>\nMP3jPLAYLISTS.inline_0 = [\n\t{ name: \"1. Introduction\", formats: [\"mp3\"], mp3: \"aHR0cHM6Ly9oYW5pbGl2ZXMuY29tL3dwLWNvbnRlbnQvdXBsb2Fkcy9IUy1OZXctSW50cm8tMi5tcDM=\", counterpart:\"\", artist: \"\", image: \"\", imgurl: \"\" }\n];\n<\/script>\n\n<script>MP3jPLAYERS[0] = { list: MP3jPLAYLISTS.inline_0, tr:0, type:'single', lstate:'', loop:false, play_txt:'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;', pause_txt:'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;', pp_title:'', autoplay:false, download:false, vol:100, height:'' };<\/script><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/hanilives.com\/?attachment_id=29\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-29\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-29\" alt=\"300px-The_Earth_seen_from_Apollo_17\" src=\"https:\/\/hanilives.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/300px-The_Earth_seen_from_Apollo_17.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hanilives.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/300px-The_Earth_seen_from_Apollo_17.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hanilives.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/300px-The_Earth_seen_from_Apollo_17-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Some people say it changed everything, that first photograph of the Earth taken from space.\u00a0 That it we couldn\u2019t see the planet, or ourselves as humans, the same way ever again.\u00a0 That\u2019s the power of a new angle of view.<\/p>\n<p>Seeing this big, beautiful planet, the one we walk around on every day, as a small blue marble set in the infinite night of Space\u2026 well, it can make you feel pretty small.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, maybe you have to think, too, that this is pretty special; that I can be that insignificant speck down there, under those swirling cloud patterns, and at the same time, I can look at this whole planet with the eyes of someone\u2026 way up here.<\/p>\n<p>One foot on that lower world, one foot in the heavens.\u00a0 Pretty damn cool.<\/p>\n<p>I should know.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been there.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t expect you to believe me.\u00a0 Not going in, anyway.\u00a0 You know what the internet\u2019s like, all those weirdos out there, claiming all kinds of stuff.<\/p>\n<p>Still, I decided this was the best place to tell my story, trusting that whatever reader stumbles onto it does so because coincidence or serendipity or some \u201cunseen hand\u201d led you here.<\/p>\n<p>And it\u2019s kind of a doozy, the tale I have to tell.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t have believed it either, but it\u2019s all true.<\/p>\n<p>You see, I\u2019m writing this in the 24<sup>th<\/sup> century, using some of my personal back-channels to publish it there, in the early 21<sup>st<\/sup>.\u00a0 If I\u2019ve targeted my dates right, it will seem to you that I\u2019ve only been gone from planet Earth for a few years.\u00a0 As Mark Twain said, rumors of my death were greatly exaggerated.\u00a0 So exaggerated that I was actually declared dead in 2010.\u00a0\u00a0 That was our plan, of course, and the person responsible for my fake death got what he deserved.<\/p>\n<p>But that\u2019s only the beginning, only the first unbelievable part of my life, the part that lifted me off the planet, into another life, in another century.\u00a0 \u00a0Sure there was mystery and suspense in that little episode, but that\u2019s nothing compared to all that came later, the worlds I\u2019ve seen, the loves I\u2019ve lost and found, the people I\u2019ve known: men and women who found their calling in making the galaxy a better place; alien worlds with disturbing cultures: orphaned half-blood children; tough guys and obsessive bureaucrats; and yes, even keepers of Truth.<\/p>\n<p>See? I told you you wouldn\u2019t believe me.<\/p>\n<p>Actually, my life started out more or less normally; well, normal if you share a passion for women\u2019s issues, ever had a first crappy marriage, or second one to a\u00a0 dotcom mogul.\u00a0 Normal if your hunger for some kind of soul-truth makes you willing to blunderingly go where\u2026well, wherever the Path may take you.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, the first parts will sound familiar, if they\u2019re not always very pretty.\u00a0 After that, it gets\u2026 interesting.<\/p>\n<p>Not interesting in some space cowboy way, mind you.\u00a0 I\u2019m not here to tell you tales of intergalactic shoot-em-ups.\u00a0 The truth is, life in space isn\u2019t the stuff of video games or blockbuster movies, at least not about 99% of the time, no matter what you\u2019ve imagined.\u00a0 The truth is far more personal, and a lot more amazing.<\/p>\n<p>Like Scheherazade, or any decent storyteller, I\u2019ve spooled out my rambling saga in small doses, designed to (hopefully) keep you coming back for more.\u00a0 I like to imagine these as bedtime stories I whisper in your ear as you nod off, tales that hover between the world of waking reality and dream.<\/p>\n<p>Like David Copperfield, I start at the beginning.\u00a0 Though maybe I should have started at the end?\u00a0 Told how I ended my days back here on Earth, told how everything came full circle after all.\u00a0 I argued that logic with a very logical friend of mine, but in the end, front to back is how it came out.\u00a0\u00a0 You can fit the pieces together however you like.\u00a0 By the time you\u2019re reading this, it\u2019s likely that I\u2019ll have come to the end of my trail, anyway.\u00a0 The gentle departure of old age, I imagine, nothing like my first dramatic, though fake, death.<\/p>\n<p>I want you to know, I gave it a lot of thought: whether it was right to introduce readers of your time to the rather fantastical facts of my existence.\u00a0 But one of the laws of the universe is this: <i>perception is reality<\/i>.\u00a0 If you think I\u2019m just blowing smoke, then smoke\u2019s all you\u2019ll get.\u00a0 If you happen to be one of those rare people, the kind who can see your regular old life, and at the same time grasp that you\u2019re living on this small, blue marble hurtling through space, maybe you\u2019ll get something more.\u00a0 Maybe you\u2019ll be the one reader who was meant to find me here.\u00a0 Maybe you\u2019ll be the one who finds yourself asking, could all this really be true?<\/p>\n<p>Ah, and reader, <i>what if it is?<\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"ch. 1a    Greetings from Another Century\" href=\"https:\/\/hanilives.com\/?page_id=32\">next &gt;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; Prefer to listen?\u00a0 Click here for audio: Some people say it changed everything, that first photograph of the Earth taken from space.\u00a0 That it we couldn\u2019t see the planet, or ourselves as humans, the same way ever again.\u00a0 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hanilives.com\/?page_id=2\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hanilives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hanilives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hanilives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hanilives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hanilives.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/hanilives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":672,"href":"https:\/\/hanilives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hanilives.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}