Originally published at The Catholic Thing
I’m a 4 a.m. guy. I rise early to think and work in the silence. But every once in a while, the outside world intrudes. I’ll turn off the lights and listen in the dark to a symphony beyond my window: the long sigh of falling rain; the percussion of faraway thunder. It’s the music of nature, alive and fertile. It’s suffused with beauty. And we humans were made to be part of that beauty, with a dignity unlike any other creature. We have the ability to dream and build, and the genius to make things happen. J.R.R. Tolkien described our species as “sub-creators.” In effect, we’re junior partners with the Creator himself. We have a unique role in making all things new. For better or worse.
I was reminded of this recently while reading yet another lurid tale about Elon Musk. Musk is now something of a hate magnet. He’s routinely cast as the dangerous, unelected Tech Bro of Washington’s Boogeyman-in-Chief. A late March Wall Street Journal report highlighted the DOGE master’s role in disrupting NASA’s plans for a return to the moon. According to the Journal, Musk has pressed the agency to pursue a manned mission to Mars
