Post by adoptaratcanada on Jul 20, 2009 19:04:03 GMT -4
...(minus 2 days, actually) of the moon landing.
I was just watching In the Shadow of the Moon on Discovery Channel Canada. A few of us are up in the woods a couple hours drive from Vancouver, in a small rented cabin. There's a small TV here, and although I normally prefer to "get away from it all" while here, I couldn't resist a few of the shows about the moon landing.
As I stood in this tiny place watching the TV I was taken back 40 years, when I was 7. Our family was in a very similar cabin to this one, one which my great-grandfather built, in fact, not far from here. We had no phone or TV there, but my parents brought up a TV for the occasion of the moon landing. They and their friends waited for hours for the landing to take place, calling us in every time it seemed it was about to happen. We kids were less patient
, trotting in repeatedly, with sighs at being taken away from our pastimes.
Finally it happened.
It was very exciting and the first "I remember where I was when..." moment of my life.
We might have at first been irritated kids but no doubt this moment stirred my life-long love of astronomy.
40 years later, I stand once again in another small cabin, in front of another small TV, and get choked up over the footage and interviews. I think back to the virtually identical scene, but this time I’m alone at the moment and almost all the adults of yesteryear long since passed. I wonder at how lucky I've been to have been here and experienced such marvels, and to have been in such fine company.
I have a good cry about all that.
I would have liked to have been an astronomer, but alas my skills weren't sufficient. Happily my other love, music, has brought me great joy and a truly satisfying career as a music therapist for Alzheimer patients.
Most satisfactorily, I can continue my amateur’s love for the wonderment above us, which truly IS heaven.
I was just watching In the Shadow of the Moon on Discovery Channel Canada. A few of us are up in the woods a couple hours drive from Vancouver, in a small rented cabin. There's a small TV here, and although I normally prefer to "get away from it all" while here, I couldn't resist a few of the shows about the moon landing.
As I stood in this tiny place watching the TV I was taken back 40 years, when I was 7. Our family was in a very similar cabin to this one, one which my great-grandfather built, in fact, not far from here. We had no phone or TV there, but my parents brought up a TV for the occasion of the moon landing. They and their friends waited for hours for the landing to take place, calling us in every time it seemed it was about to happen. We kids were less patient
, trotting in repeatedly, with sighs at being taken away from our pastimes.Finally it happened.
It was very exciting and the first "I remember where I was when..." moment of my life.
We might have at first been irritated kids but no doubt this moment stirred my life-long love of astronomy.
40 years later, I stand once again in another small cabin, in front of another small TV, and get choked up over the footage and interviews. I think back to the virtually identical scene, but this time I’m alone at the moment and almost all the adults of yesteryear long since passed. I wonder at how lucky I've been to have been here and experienced such marvels, and to have been in such fine company.
I have a good cry about all that.
I would have liked to have been an astronomer, but alas my skills weren't sufficient. Happily my other love, music, has brought me great joy and a truly satisfying career as a music therapist for Alzheimer patients.
Most satisfactorily, I can continue my amateur’s love for the wonderment above us, which truly IS heaven.
