When an astronaut in outer space was beamed back to earth showing us his heart hands and a friendship bracelet, he was speaking my love language.
The gorgeous gesture from Commander Reid Wiseman aboard the Artemis II space mission to the moon was intended for his two daughters.
But it also reached the millions of us who recognised the universal symbols of the Taylor Swift fandom and immediately saw a man who respects women and girls.
If that wasn’t enough to get me glued to the mission, it turned out Commander Wiseman’s late wife Carroll was a nurse, and in another moving gesture the crew hugged and cried as they named a crater on the moon in her honour.
In so many ways, the Artemis astronauts showed us humanity at its very best, at a time in history when we are being bombarded with examples of humanity at its very worst.
On the same day last week, two high-profile American men perfectly demonstrated what we mean when we talk about the differences between healthy and toxic masculinity.
One was a NASA astronaut, travelling deeper into space than ever before. The other was the President of the United States, threatening to annihilate 90 million people.
We all know about Donald Trump’s decades-long history of abuse and failures. The racism and misogyny. The crimes and corruption. The human rights abuses. The chaos and instability that he has inflicted on his own citizens. The threats and destruction that he has wreaked on the rest of the world.
He is the vilest of men and the fakest of Christians.
And then there’s Commander Wiseman. An astronaut, engineer, navy veteran and Swiftie dad who was on a 400,000km trip to the moon on a spaceship appropriately named Integrity, demonstrating all the characteristics of true leadership.
Because real leaders unite and inspire. Real leaders are respectful and kind. Real leaders value science, expertise and diversity. And real leaders aim to make the world better.
All qualities that Commander Wiseman quietly showed in a nine-day NASA mission that was bigger than science.
It was Wiseman who chose the three other astronauts who would complete the lunar flyby and in doing so he set the scene for a series of world firsts.
Victor Glover became the first person of colour to orbit the moon, Christina Koch was the first woman, and Jeremy Hansen was the first non-US citizen.
The courageous crew of experienced space travellers set the record for being the greatest human distance from earth, 406,711km, breaking the previous record set by Apollo 13 in 1970.
Leaders who embrace diversity, equality and inclusion realise that’s how you create a meritocracy and advance humanity. Wiseman made history in more ways than one and in the process won hearts the world over.
For Swifties, the delight of seeing those heart hands and a friendship bracelet in space had us cheering along and praying he got home safely to his daughters.
The crew made their triumphant return to earth on Saturday morning after hurtling back into the atmosphere at 40,000km/hr and then parachuting into the Pacific Ocean.
In his first public statement on home soil yesterday, a teary Wiseman spoke only a few words but they said so much: “It’s a special thing to be a human, and it’s a special thing to be on planet earth.”
