I have been fighting terminal illness (COPD) for some time, having been told that I had a year to live on the Ides of March, 2014. The docs don't always get it right, especially when there's stubborn Swedish/Irish blood involved!
One of the reasons I fight to stay with you is to witness the incalculable grandeur and astounding beauty that the Webb Telescope promises to reveal. How deeply I admire those who have spent their careers placing this exquisite instrument at a precise Lagrange point to sample starlight sent billions of years ago. I stand in absolute awe of the immensity and variability of our Universe! The first pictures shall bring tears, I have no doubt.
We have become Columbus; but our sails are beryllium and our winds steady streams of electrons. The lands we glimpse supersede our most vivid imaginings. They shall inform us of our very beginnings.
- Ed