365 Days Around The Sun

The Moon

Who in the hell looked up and saw that magnificent thing in the sky and said, “We are going to send people there!”

Why the moon and not the sun?  In the late 60’s we did it, Neil Armstrong, did it.  The Moon. We landed on an object in the universe.

Heck, I hate paying taxes and now you (the Government) are sending me into orbit?! Hell to the No! Ain’t Happening.  You may have seen the footage back then on a big giant RCA TV that looked and pound wise felt like a small SUV.  By the way I haven’t or will not try to pick up an SUV, but those TVs were ginormous. How those big giant boxes moved from place to place is anyone’s guess.

ARM & STRONG, why would that not be the first man on the moon!  Now that my friends is cool, really cool.  Our president had a goal at the time, and he wanted to reach new boundaries, something never done before. “One small step for man, one giant leap for man-kind.”  I cannot imagine the adrenaline that was running throughout Neil’s veins at the time.  I can only imagine it was, “Holy Shit. We did it!”

Woodstock was also happening not too far from where I was born.  Happening around that time frame; as the moon landing.  Oh, by the way it was NOT in Woodstock, New York, but a few miles away.  I guess Woodstock sounded better than Bethal.  A dairy farm where ‘hippies’ smoked weed, had sex, and listened to the greatest music ever.  Man, I would of loved to hear Jimi Hendrix in person.  And the hippies did!  As they were high as a kite and getting laid. (SORRY MOM) Two in the same time frame and yet both different……..But they were both fun I can only imagine.

Arm, Strong, and a step.  He performed a task probably not imagined by anyone today.  Life is short make it sweet and Neil did it.  Some get frustrated by waiting in a carpool line or waiting in a grocery checkout line or trying to text.  If you read chapter 36 you will get it.

Me, if I was Neil at the time, I would have thought…(A) I’m terrified of doing this (B) When are we getting there (C) Do we get home and if so how and (D) Why did we just do this?

You know why because they thought it couldn’t be done but by damn it, we did it!  My heart gets broken because no longer are my arms strong and I cannot step, so I sure as shit would not have been on Apollo.  But Neil gives me hope as he did the unimaginable maybe I can too.

You may not know what you can accomplish if you get out of your comfort zone.  I do it every day.  7am at Food Lion I looked like a drunk trying to buy groceries to fill up my kitchen cabinets with parcels of food.  Now I am not comparing it to what Armstrong did at all.  He put on a space suit and looked like a giant snowman; me I covered ‘bed head’ with a baseball cap and went grocery shopping.  But you know what?  Both took courage and the sense to say, “I can do it!”

I lie to myself a lot, at least in my head.  The Adrenaline running through Armstrong is the same one that goes though mine only I pray I don’t stumble and fall.  Neil walked on an object we see at night and think nothing of it, me I just hope I can step over a curb without falling down and embarrassing those around me or myself for that matter.

“One small step” No Mr. Armstrong it was not a “SMALL” step, you are a part of history and will be remembered fondly. 

The rest of us have our own achievements, and let’s embrace that.  We need goals and maybe it is just to feel free.  Free of embarrassment.  The kids at WOODSTOCK FELT FREE from the photos I have seen.  Goals, we all have them.  We are all on THIS planet together, now go do the unimaginable, I promise you; that you have it in you.  Crank up some All Along The Watchtower along the way, as you take “One small step.” And reach new boundaries.