Quote:
"July 20th this year will mark the 40th anniversary of the first manned moon landing.
I was in my first year of high school in 1969 when the Eagle touched down on the Sea of Tranquility, and I recall how we were all allowed the day off of school to watch, in excitement and wonder, those grainy black and white television pictures as Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot upon a world beyond our own.
It seemed that everyone on the planet who had access to a t.v., was watching as Armstrong climbed tentatively down the ladder of the LEM and into history, and into a new dawn, (or so it seemed back then).
'It's one small step for Man, one giant leap for Mankind'.
It was one of those moments when people all over the world were genuinely united in celebrating a remarkable achievement in the history of our species, a point Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins reflected on:
'After the flight of Apollo 11, the three of us went on a round the world trip. Wherever we went, people instead of saying, well, you Americans did it, everywhere they said - WE did it! We, humankind, we the human race...and I had never heard of people in different countries use this word we, we, we, as emphatically as we were hearing from Europeans, Asians, Africans. Wherever we went it was - we finally did it!, and I thought that was a wonderful thing; ephemeral, but wonderful'.
Apollo 17 in December 1972, marked the last time, thus far, that humans have visited another world. The public interest in these things evaporated, (with the notable exception of the drama involving Apollo 13). We became blase, 'been there, done that, got the t-shirt, old news'.
As a young boy, I was watching science fiction become science fact. There was the awareness as well that 'we' had taken another step in that long line of steps that began when we evolved in Africa and fanned out over the globe.
It can seem like a terrible cliche to say that we are meant to do these things, driven by our very nature to explore, to understand, to push the boundaries of knowledge and of what can be done, but NOT to do these things, it seems to me, would be like clipping the wings of some magnificent bird, meant to soar. Soaring is, indeed in our nature.
The video includes Armstrong's famous 'One small step' speech, as well as a very memorable comment made by Buzz Aldrin as he joined Armstrong on the surface of the moon: 'Beautiful, beautiful. Magnificent desolation'.
Thanks to my friend cyyyggnus for suggesting the inclusion of these quotes.
I hope you enjoy the video.
I would also highly recommend the documentary film: 'In The Shadow of the Moon'. "
I’ll be outside tonight, raising a glass to the moon and to all those who made it possible to reach it. *cheers*
