It Was Forty Years Ago Today

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"...But what about the men themselves? What about the 39-year-old pilot who returns from the moon and knows with a mortal certainty that he has already done the most noteworthy thing he'll ever do and now must keep himself busy for the next half-century? What about the existential whiplash that comes from being on the moon one week and in your living room the next — and having to find your own way to process the vast gulf between those two worlds? "I remember coming back to Houston after the moon, and my neighbors had a barbecue for me," Dave Scott, commander of Apollo 15, told me. "I thought, 'What am I doing here?' "

And what happens when the press pack moves on, when the interviews stop and the faces of the flyers once limned with light become lined with age? "Remember where you're standing when the spotlight goes off," Lovell warned me once, when our book was a best seller and the movie it spawned was in theaters. "You'll have to find your own way off the stage."
excerpt from an article by Jeffrey Krueger

Comments

  1. maninthemoonherbsJuly 20, 2009 at 10:15 AM

    That is all so true. I thought it was a shame when Mike Tyson won the championship at such a young age. What did he have to look forward to? I think Life is so much more meaningful when you still have potential to realize.

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  2. LydiaJuly 20, 2009 at 2:06 PM

    Loved all you offered in this post.

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  3. KathleenJuly 20, 2009 at 4:50 PM

    Hmmmmm. Very thought provoking. I've heard similar things about Nobel Prize winners. I wonder if the lunar experience changed the astronauts spiritually?Talk about some serious rocket lag!!!!

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  4. jackc50July 21, 2009 at 4:59 PM

    hey, i mean once you have gone to the moon, well it's going to be hard to keep them on the farm. do you remember where you were forty years ago, assuming one was born.........heehee, jack c

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  5. Deanna Bland Hiott PhD, MSN, RNJuly 21, 2009 at 5:40 PM

    Very, very interesting...It just seems there is always so much more on so many levels...

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  6. RudeeJuly 21, 2009 at 10:10 PM

    Yes, what is next after you've reached the pinnacle? How can one stand up there and not believe there is something more and more grand that we've yet to see? I believe...

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  7. AnujaJuly 22, 2009 at 9:15 AM

    I saw a play in Philly (Something Intangible) and the theme was something like what you addressed in this post. It was loosely based on Walt Disney's career. The play stunningly portrayed the feeling that comes along with knowing that you can never do anything that will top what you've just accomplished. It really moved me when he came to that realization, when he recognized that his journey from that point onwards would be downhill no matter how much effort he exerted.

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Hey, thanks for your thoughts and your time:>)

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