What would I give for the entire universe?

When I woke up this morning I was feeling pretty bummed out, so I pulled up my Youtube app and watched Neil deGrasse Tyson's "We Stopped Dreaming" video - which I realize sounds like a strange way of cheering oneself up, as it's all about how society is failing science and technology, but it really makes me feel energized and like I could do something with my life.

Right at the end Neil deGrasse Tyson asks, "How much would you pay for the universe?" and I've never really had an answer, but this morning, I said out loud, "My life."

Not that I think I should sacrifice myself on a public altar; not that I think that sort of action or protest would further the cause.  But I think I should - that a lot of us should - dedicate our lives to the universe.  To science, to technology, to our future.  I already am on that road, let's face it, how many 25 year old girls get to spend their days in a lab with an XRF, analyzing the elemental composition of artifacts from shipwrecks?  I'm guessing it's not a lot.  In fact, I'm guessing the percent total of scientists vs the percent total of hairdressers is not going to be a staggering number either.

Not that I'm hating on hairdressers.  We need them.  We need hairdressers, and construction workers, and auto mechanics and the million and one jobs - people - necessary to keep our world turning.  I think what we also need to do is stop pushing everyone and their brother into college when they don't want or need it.  It's just making higher education ridiculously expensive, it's making huge classes the norm, it's turning colleges into numbers machines instead of havens for learning, experimenting, pushing the envelope.  (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/7332452/The-university-professor-who-stood-up-against-dumbing-down-of-degrees.html) Even in my field, it's all about how much you publish, not what you publish. (http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/06/peter-higgs-boson-academic-system)

We need to stop treating teachers like losers.  We need to publicly destroy the phrase "those who can't do, teach".  We need to start respecting education for what it is (a process) and not for what it can get for us (an endgame).  We need to stop training children out of asking "why" even if it IS annoying when you're trying to cook dinner after a 9 hour workday and two hour commute.  Children are not there to serve our interests; we're here to serve theirs.

And we need to make the universe our priority.  All of it.  After all, we are the most infinitesimal grain of sand on a celestial beach.  With so much out there, why do we keep dismissing it, cutting funding for it, and claiming it's more important to "trickle down" than venture out?

Let's go back to the moon.  Let's go to Mars.  Hell, let's go to Pluto!  (Sorry Dr. Tyson, it will always be a planet to me.)  Let's make "why" and "why not" the two most asked questions in the world. 

Above all...let us have fun doing it.  After all, what is more fun than dreaming great dreams?  Or achieving them?