The Wisdom of Apollo 8

Christmas Eve, 1968: The view of "the good Earth" from the window of Apollo 8. Three astronauts paused to reflect, and sent back to Earth:

William Anders:

"For all the people on Earth the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send you".

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."

Jim Lovell:

"And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."

Frank Borman:

"And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good."

Borman then added, "And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you - all of you on the good Earth."

As I've stated on this blog before, many of my students don't recall a time before there was an Internet; many of their parents may not have been in kindergarten when this broadcast took place.

It was a different time; Both Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy had been shot in 1968, riots had been quelled, and both the Vietnam War and Civil Rights were the topics of debate.

These astronauts were, after all, military men; conservative, disciplined men who tended to see an order in things. Surrounded by tens of thousands of miles of hostile space, they were given full latitude by ground control in Houston to "say what was appropriate."

And so they chose.

Much has happened in those forty ensuing years; technological progress marred by thorny social and ethnic strife, an erosion from faith, so that now that quoted text from Genesis seems quaint.

But, as we finish yet another year, we collectively look forward to the future with hope. But hope not grounded in faith is irrational.

The Apollo 8 team found that when we are furthest from "ground" is that most opportune time to find that which "grounds" us.

Many of the events of 2008--economic turmoil, natural disasters--have (as least figuratively) knocked the ground from beneath us. And we're feeling a bit uneasy.

Perhaps the best time to find "ground."