grumpygringo

I am in love.

It's not with a woman.

Nor is it a man, or any earthly being.

The night sky is my love. She always has been.

I remember spotting the Big Dipper for the first time out of the window of a station wagon when I was maybe 6 years old.

I remember seeing Orion's Belt (and then the rest of him) while on the same stretch of highway; this time out of the window of a Mercury (the car we had after the station wagon).

I vividly recall a fishing trip with a friend and his parents when I was about 8 years old (I think) when I first saw the Pleiades star cluster. As well as a dozen or more shooting stars.

I can remember laying so still in my yard that I could feel the Earth spin beneath me.


As long as I can remember, I have loved the sky. One of my most cherished memories (and an image that has haunted my dreams for years) is standing in my back yard in the early evening and seeing the moon hanging there; seemingly within my reach.

I remember trying to touch the moon. Jumping up and down. Climbing the elm tree in our yard. Trying to swing high enough on our swing set to jump out of the swing and touch that pale shape in the sky.

I can remember trying so hard to touch it that I cried out of frustration...but I never did.

I've often dreamed of reaching for the moon. Seeing my chubby, 4 year old hand outlined by the ghostly shape of the pale, afternoon moon. I always wake up from these dreams in tears.

The moon is a goal I will never achieve.

I'm not an overly ambitious guy. I'd like to be rich and famous, just like anyone else. But I'm happy just to have a job and pay my bills and have a good time when I get the opportunity.

But there's something more. Something I've wanted since I was a little kid with a big imagination.

I want to be a spaceman.

I want to see things that no other person has ever seen.

I want to travel the cosmos in my rocketship and be the first to set foot on alien soil. I want to be the first to see the sunlight of another world.

I'd settle for second, or even third.

We are a fledgling race. Only in the last few decades have we reached out beyond our own small planet. We listen to the heavens and search for our sister stars and planets, but we haven't found them. We haven't found any evidence of intelligent life beyond our unremarkable system.

I say, "To hell with Fermi"! We need Buck Rogers! We need Mazer Rackham! We need explorers and adventurers and people willing to risk all they have to find more.

I'd gladly sign up for that mission. I'd be sad to leave my family and the friends that I've made; but it would be worth it. Even if I found nothing and died alone in the cold vacuum of space, it would be worth it. To go and try, I would give all.


Think back to when you were a small child. You tried to touch the moon too.



Don't ever stop reaching for it.