Shortly after my second birthday,the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into space. I have some vague memories of there being some excitement, and the word Sputnik being bandied around. I remember when I was very small that I wondered if I could see Sputnik up in the sky, but, try as I might, I never did.
Then, when I was in first grade, my teacher brought a TV to school and we watched John Glenn orbit the Earth. Mostly I remember them getting him out of the capsule, and my teacher being very excited to see him climb out. I think I understood that what he did was amazing and that no one had done it before. It must have been amazing, or Miss Wells wouldn't have brought a TV to school!
I'm not a scientist, though I like science in a "Nova Special" sort of way, but I am a child of the Space Age, and as such have a fascination about space and the universe. It just boggles my mind, and I love having my mind boggled!
I'm thankful for the wonders of the universe. I'm thankful for the way learning about it seems to lead to more wonder, not less, and that there is no way to know all there is to know about it. I'm thankful for the amazing, complex creation we inhabit, so huge I will never see more than the tiniest speck of it.
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2 comments:
Now I know I'm older than you, Joyce; I think I was in second grade when Sputnik was sent into space:) Like you, though, I remember being able to watch the first space mission and John Glenn's orbiting of the moon on TV in the classroom--quite a treat back then! I wonder if young people today have that same sense of wonder...
I doubt they do; how can they when the shuttle going up became so routine? Remember how the space race was all you heard about when we were kids? That and the Cold War and the Iron Curtain.
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