Wednesday, August 13, 2008

A Fable of Inner & Outer Space

In a recent interview, Jim Lovell, one of the astronauts who went to the moon noted that "The early astronauts were all living on the edge. When Apollo ended, NASA was like a ship without a rudder. People got frustrated. It happens a lot. People climb a mountain, they make a great name for themselves, then suddenly it stops. You've achieved it, and now what? It never occurred to me that 40 years later, no one would go back to the moon. With what we'd accomplished, I thought the momentum would continue. But I guess evolution goes two steps forward and one step back.

What an incredible perspective! What would our world be like now if we had focused on venturing further into space, exploring other planets? Apparently the early visionaries were thinking that way.

How often have we experienced something like that in our lives, where we achieved something great and then did not follow up on it to continue growing, expanding, and exploring? Sometimes in our own development, we take one step forward and two steps back.

Come to think of it, that is a nice dance step. Try it with a partner. One more step and you could make it a moon waltz.

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