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:toast:
Hope it's "out of this world"! Nyuck nyuck nyuck!
I agree about the space program. Call me :tinfoilhat: but I think the government covers up so much because they think we're clones of Homer Simpson--ignorant sods who "can't handle it" and would riot in the street if we aren't placated with Big Macs and American Idol. (Bread and circuses by any other name, yanno?)
I'm fascinated by the astronauts who became very spiritual after their trips into space. A few weeks ago I watched a moon landing special hosted by my favorite TV presenter (see sig). He talked to a few astronauts and went over the basics of the space program (his show was only an hour, so it was kind of cursory, but it was really personal--he was 6 at the time of the moon landing, so he talked from his point of view about being fascinated with the space program his whole life, like others of our generation).
Anyway, as part of the show he got to go up in a U2 spy plane right to the edge of space. (Interestingly enough, he wasn't allowed to go any higher, he said later, because he was told it would have "compromised national security"--hmm....) He had a small handheld camera in the plane, documenting it all, which was really cool. And when he was high enough to see the curve of the earth and the blackness of space above, he got all choked up. It was amazing--this usually jaded, mellow guy getting all teary and everything.
He tried to explain what he felt several times after that--as part of the show (as soon as he landed), in newspaper interviews afterward, and on a talk show, but he never could really put it into words. What I gleaned from all his attempts was that he saw the wholeness of the earth, and yet how self-contained and tiny it is in the grand scheme of things, and realized that all our petty issues "don't amount to a hill of beans", to steal from a great movie.
That made me wonder about what being completely separate from the earth--being on the moon and looking back at it--did to the astronauts who walked on the moon. That it changed them so fundamentally, and altered their view of spirituality and humanity...what a powerful experience.
The guy who did the special said everyone should go up into space and see what he saw--that it would cure us of all our petty grievances. I tend to agree!
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