Gratitude Friday 11 14 25 Apollo 12 in the “Can Do” Era

"We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard" - President John F Kennedy September 12, 1962

President Kennedy made the "We choose to go to the Moon" speech before I was born. He said we would develop technology and get to the moon before the end of the decade. It was part of the space race between the US and the USSR, which started a few years earlier when the Russians put a basketball sized satellite over our heads. It was on this date, November 14^th, 1969, that NASA launched Apollo 12, the second crewed mission to the moon. I was four, it is one of my earliest memories. I can cement it in time based on not yet being in school and that it was cold out. I was at home playing with wooden blocks in the den of the home we lived in. My mom watched it on black and white TV with rabbit ear antenna and three channels.

I don’t recall Apollo 11, but I do recall Apollo 13 as it coincided with a partial eclipse. My family had a paper towel viewer set up so we could view the eclipse on April the 10^th and Apollo 13 was sitting on the launch pad in preparation before launching on April 11, 1970. It was a big deal. Everyone watched the moon missions in that era. The landing on 13 was aborted and they came back to earth early. That is a story of ingenuity in and of itself that readers may be aware of.

So much about NASA influenced my childhood. We had a subscription to National Geographic and Science World Scholastic which I read to understand. I was seeing with my brand-new eyes something that had never occurred in human history. By age 11, I had a model of the lunar lander and orbiter, and we made model rockets. The notion of space and moving beyond the gravitational boundaries of the earth had a broad influence on our society.

This was the era I was raised in. We had a can-do attitude in America. This was despite awkward truths of a failing war and declining manufacturing base that also defined the era. Several key political figures had been assassinated. It was a period in which there were riots across America, yet we were optimistic as a society about our future. I could feel it even as a child. In some ways I think it was that attitude that buoyed America through those times. We were a people who could face difficult things and get through them together.  The home we bought in the 90s has a closet with moon lander wallpaper (pictured above). My bedroom as a kid had space-themed wallpaper.

I am grateful to have been raised in such a time. I am grateful that one of the longest and most enduring memories of my very earliest years is one of our nations changing human history by discovering the sky above our heads in the decades following us preserving freedom on earth. Our collective narrative about who we are and what we can do matters a lot as evidenced to me that it forms my very earliest memory. It begs us to ask ourselves what is our current view of ourselves as a people? What are we showing the next generation about who and what we are? Who they are?

At the time, there was also a narrative about American Exceptionalism, which was articulated as our nation being unique with a special role in the world due to its history and ideals of democracy, liberty, and self-government. Yes, I would acknowledge that there is a certain amount of hubris in the assertion of American Exceptionalism but consider the alternative. Do we see ourselves as a mediocre nation that got lucky? One that can assert military and economic force on other nations without responsibility beyond our borders. I don’t like where that one takes us.

What is our shared story on our nation’s identity moving forward? I think there is something to be said for a “can do” / “we are all in this together” ethos. That we are greater together than the sum of our parts. We should think about the narrative of who and what we are for those we are raising so they are raised in the context of hope and responsibility for a more positive future. I am grateful to have been raised in an era in which we had the narrative we did because it served to guide us in a positive direction.

What are you grateful for today?