Armstrong, Aldrin, and the other one

[den]

33 years ago, two men walked on the moon. The history books always say July 20th, but here in Australia it was July 21st. I turned 8 years old that day. I got a gravity-assisst Hot Wheels set, and a moon walk on telly. What cool birthday presents!

What really stuck with me was my feelings about The Other One. Michael Collins got as far as the moon but stayed in orbit.

On his own.

I mean, REALLY on his own. When his orbit took him to the far side of the moon he was out of radio contact. I've always wondered what it was like to be that cut off from everything except the rest of the universe.

Comments

"Never Forget."

[athelind.livejournal.com]

http://www.livejournal.com/users/athelind/46635.html

We hear that again and again, about the "lessons of history". "Never forget" the World Trade Center. "Never forget" the Holocaust. "Never forget" all the horrors that mankind has wrought, the pain and the suffering and the cruelty.

Nor should we.

But history has other lessons, as well, though we seem all too willing to forget those.

We touched the sky, once.

Never forget that.

We can, again, if we have the courage and the will.

---

Hope Eyrie by Leslie Fish (http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/2475/2475523.html)

Worlds grow old and suns grow cold
And death we never can doubt.
Time's cold wind, wailing down the past,
Reminds us that all flesh is grass
And history's lamps blow out.

But the Eagle has landed; tell your children when.
Time won't drive us down to dust again.

Cycles turn while the far stars burn,
And people and planets age.
Life's crown passes to younger lands,
Time brushes dust of hope from his hands
And turns another page.

For the Eagle has landed; tell your children when.
Time won't drive us down to dust again.

But we who feel the weight of the wheel
When winter falls over our world
Can hope for tomorrow and raise our eyes
To a silver moon in the open skies
and a single flag unfurled.

For the Eagle has landed; tell your children when.
Time won't drive us down to dust again.

We know well what Life can tell:
If you would not perish, then grow.
And today our fragile flesh and steel
Have laid their hands on a vaster wheel
With all of the stars to know

That the Eagle has landed; tell your children when.
Time won't drive us down to dust again.

From all who tried out of history's tide,
Salute for the team that won.
And the old Earth smiles at her children's reach,
The wave that carried us up the beach
To reach for the shining sun.

For the Eagle has landed; tell your children when.
Time won't drive us down to dust again.