If you can, step outside right now, and look up. Look at that moon for a minute, different than most of us have ever seen it.
We forget. We forget that it’s not just a pretty light in the sky, it’s a huge rock whirling around at unimaginable speeds, born of a cataclysmic impact between our own rock and something else which we may never truly identify.
And yet we’ve walked on it. The Stars and Stripes left there is now bleached white by the sun, but the footprints of humankind remain.
In that celestial beauty lie also opportunity and mystery, challenging us to step forth into the heavens once again.
The color of the moon right now is closer to what we associate with Mars, our next closest celestial neighbor, and a place where we have yet to venture.
But venture we can, and must, and will.
Out there somewhere tonight, a child is looking at this moon and beginning a journey which will see their own footprints left in that most foreign of soils.
Out there somewhere tonight, a couple are pledging themselves to each other, blessed by a light they won’t see for another 18 years.
There is magic in this, and beauty. There is wisdom, and clarity. There is science, and poetry.
If you haven’t yet gone out to look at the moon, do yourself a favor now and step out. Let yourself feel that wonder.
It’s worth it.
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