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Consider this quote from Abe Lincoln
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
"Don't tell me that man doesn't belong out there. Man belongs wherever he wants to go--and he'll do plenty well when he gets there."~Wernher von Braun, Time magazine, 1958
I was up early Saturday morning, in fact much earlier than my usual weekend awakening. There are few things that will wake me that early on a weekend, heading out to the State Fair is one of them, but I needed to be it the Methodist Camp at Spirit Lake by 11:00 a.m. in order to see Hannah’s music program at the end of camp, so I awoke and headed north, a little groggy and fueled by some Casey’s doughnuts and a Mountain Dew.
As I am apt to do on any long drive I tuned into WHO to listen to the morning chatter in order to keep myself awake and they were discussing “where were you” when historical events occurred. Being just a wee bit early I wasn’t really aware of the landing on the moon. I can only imagine the excitement it caused. If you are old enough, do you remember where you were when those grainy photos flashed across the television screen?
The moon…that important rock out there in the night sky circling us. It affects our moods, the tides, livestock, werewolves and most importantly when the fish are biting. It comes in different shapes and sizes and as everyone knows is made of cheese. We dream under it, look up to it and wave at the man smiling back at us in his frozen stare. We don’t just call it “the moon” but we have special terms for it. The Harvest Moon, Blue Moon of Kentucky (go Elvis go), New Moon, Half Moon, Crescent Moon, Waxing Moon, Silvery Moon, Blood Moon…all one moon, just a lot of different things it can be called.
From the earliest silent moves man dreamed of going to the moon. 40 years ago those dreams were realized when Neil Armstrong set foot in the grey dusty ground at a spot in the Sea of Tranquility. It was a race to get there, and one not without its failures. In fact there are still a large outspoken group of individuals who fervently believe that man did not reach the moon, but that the entire Apollo program was an elaborate hoax, and that the landing was filmed on a Hollywood back lot.
Regardless today we celebrate with the world that achievement of reaching the moon. The day that mankind reached out and achieved a dream that had for so long been an impossibility. Tonight, as we look up again, we are reminded of the work in space exploration that is yet to be done. Galaxies and planets yet reached. And even questions that 40 years later have drawn the interest of scientists and the public. Soon a spacecraft will buzz the surface of the moon sending back photos of items left on the surface of the moon. How will 40 years in that atmosphere have affected them? It’s as though there is this wonderful archeological site in our view every day.
And somewhere a child will sit tonight out under the stars in the soft green grass as the fireflies blink about and gaze up at the moon and dream of going there.
See you next week. Remember, we’re all in this together.