ROCKET TO THE MOON

I just finished watching a wonderful documentary called, 'In the Shadow of the Moon' about the early space program and the men who traveled to the moon. Unexpectedly so, this was a very moving film. I thought it was going to be filled with back-slapping and high-fiving, about spending Billions to send hunks of metal with humans in them into outer space while so many suffer here on this rock. 

Not at all. As a matter of fact, it left me with a profound sense of wonderment. It's not only an interesting look into our obsession with what's out there, but an even more interesting look into the spiritual changes one can go through after being strapped to a giant rocket and fired into the air...way into the air, only to look back from whence they came so-to-speak and see where we all live (seeing the earth like we do looking at the moon). Below are some excerpts from interviews with each of the spacemen. Trust me, not one shot of backslapping or high-fiving in this one...

"I felt that I was literally standing on a plateau somewhere out there in space; a plateau that science and technology had allowed me to get to; but now what I was seeing and even more important how I was feeling at that time, science and technology had no answers for. Literally no answers because there I was, and there you are. There you are, the earth, dynamic, overwhelming and I felt that in the world there's too much purpose, too much logic, its too beautiful to happen 'by accident'. There had to be somebody bigger than you and bigger than me. I mean this in a spiritual sense not a religious sense; there has to be a creator of the universe who stands above the religions that we ourselves create to govern our lives."

Gene Cernan

"I think if you do something that's drastically different, like flying to the moon and coming back again, everyone tells you how important it is, how wonderful it is, how important, important, important. Then by comparison a lot of other things that used to seem important don't seem quite as much so. I'm not saying that I am able to face life with greater equanimity because I've flown to the moon, but I try too. And maybe some of our terrestrial squabbles don't seem as important after having flown to the moon as they did before."

Mike Collins

"We learned a lot about the moon but what we really learned was about the earth. The fact that just from the distance of the moon you could put your thumb up and you could hide the earth behind your thumb. Everything that you've ever known. Your loved ones, your business the problems of the earth itself; all behind your thumb and how insignificant we really all are. But, then how fortunate we are to have this body and be able to enjoy living here amongst the beauty of the earth itself."

Jim Lovell

"This truly is an oasis and we don't take very good care of it, and I think the elevation of that awareness is a real contribution to, you know, saving the earth if you will."

Dave Scott

"Earth has changed a lot since we started flying at Gemini. There's a lot of things like urban pollution and you can see that when you hit orbit now. You can see the big cities all have their own set of unique atmospheres, they really do. We ought to be looking out for our kids and our grandkids and what are we worried about? The price of a gallon of gasoline. You know, in the united states they are worried about three dollar a gallon gas, that's awful."

John Young

"Since that time I have not complained about the weather one single time; I'm glad there is weather. I have not complained about traffic; I'm glad there are people around. One of the things that I did when I got home I went down to shopping centers. I'd go around there, get an ice cream cone or something and just watch the people go by and think 'Boy, we're lucky to be here'. Why do people complain about the earth? We are living in the Garden of Eden."

Alan Bean

"The biggest joy was on the way home. In my cockpit window, every two minutes, the earth, the moon, the sun and the whole 360 degree panorama of the heavens; and that was a powerful, overwhelming experience. Suddenly I realized that the molecules of my body and the molecules of the space craft and the molecules in the bodies of my partners were prototyped and manufactured in some ancient generation of stars. That was an overwhelming sense of oneness, of connectedness, it wasn't them and us; it was, 'that's me, that's all of it, that's one thing'; and it was accompanied by an ecstasy, a sense of 'oh my god', 'wow', 'yes', an insight, an epiphany.

Edgar Mitchell

I wish you all, the experience of your own insights, epiphanies and sense of 'Oh my God'.