Running Commentary: Living in THE SHADOW OF THE MOON

by: bamf 1 year, 1 month, 6 days, 17 hours, 12 minutes ago 0

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Bamf here rematerializing from the void..

As we get older, the lines and creases in our faces become more defined.  It’s the repetition of a frown, a scowl, or a smile, thousands of times over that train the muscles and the skin that covers it.  I am certain I have some very distinct lines on my body, but I cannot see them.  These are creases produced by my repetitive desire to simply look up.  I am a sky watcher, a star gazer.  I set my alarm for two in the morning a few weeks ago to watch the lunar eclipse, a celestial event that created the blood-moon effect, and it was magnificent.  Last week I traveled north towards Santa Maria California to visit an old friend from Alaska who was fighting fires north of Santa Monica.  The Alaska crew was getting their butts beat by the heat wave California was experiencing, and Nathan wasn’t too sure if their thick blood was going to let them see any action in the 106 degree heat.  As I walked with him around the tent city, I saw faces covered in black soot, a water bottle in every hand, and a lone tree providing shade at capacity.  The crew was exhausted, spent, some had heat stroke.  I moved my chin up, to look upon a sun still high in the sky at seven in the evening—it was 90 degrees Fahrenheit.  After sharing a beer and a conversation with Nate, I had to get on the road back south for a 3 hour trip back home, and I wanted to have some drive time while I still had some light.

I connected back with the 101 south at Santa Maria and about 20 minutes into the ride I came upon a disaster of cars.  There were break lights illuminated red for about 2 to 3 miles around a curve.  At first I thought I had come upon an accident.  So I stayed in the queue and slowly inched my way forward for about an hour until I came to an exit where the highway patrol was directing traffic off the main highway.  The bottle neck was causing chaos; there were Semi trucks in all different directions, SUVs and mini coopers parked off the shoulder like a blind man running the valet service.  After more inching, I found a spot down a dirt road where I could wait out the congestion of the 101 south shut down.  I was tired, I had been driving since noon that day so I could meet up with Nate in his hour of free time, it was now 10 and my body was feeling weary.  The most unexpected thing happened when I was deliberating on the amount of sleep I would get, and the commute I had in the morning for work.  The wind was howling from the west, I was a few miles away from the Pacific and my muscles sang out in relief as I closed my eyes and arched my back for a well needed stretch.  Then I opened my eyes, arms still stretched to the sky and suddenly became aware of the sky before me.  With no light pollution from any city, and a clear sky filled only with westward born wind, the star field in the night sky was overwhelming with points of light.  I could actually see the milky way, a band of white going North to south, I tried to get my bearings as an amateur astronomer by picking out some constellations but found the task most difficult.  I was lost in a sea of stars on the good ship we call Earth travelling 67000 miles per hour around the sun. 

As it turns out it wasn’t an accident, but a fire that had overtaken the 101 and had made it impossible to pass.  I could hear it announced over a bull horn by the Highway patrolman who was diverting traffic off the highway. The creases in my neck must have been cut deeper that night, because it was only after another twenty minutes of gazing that I finally gave my neck a rest from the upward position.  My arms and legs had become stiff again from the cold ocean air, but my mind was hot from the seduction of outer space. 
In David Singleton’s documentary titled In the Shadow of the Moon the nine surviving astronauts tell their stories of America’s journey to the moon.  Their voices are complimented by astounding footage of the Apollo program in progress, from the building of the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) to the various failures of the Saturn rocket engine.  Every failure was a success, and bold moves were made with the lessons of each launch until they got it right.

The Astronauts speak to the camera, and you feel like you are in a room with your Grandfather telling the stories of his past.  The unique aspect of these tales, as one Apollo astronaut puts it, it all still sounds like a science fiction story.  But we did it, man went to the moon over 30 years ago, and then we sadly stopped.  Alan Bean brings a light air to the conversation of the film.  He has a twinkle in his eyes that says he never really left the moon and the casting of Dave Foley as him in the HBO series From the Earth to the Moon was spot on.  Michael Collins, who was part of Apollo 11 but never set foot on the moon, gives insight to what it is like to have two moons in your mind.  The one vision of an earthbound watcher and one of a man who watched it pass below his orbit around the foreboding field of grey.

The footage shown is cut wonderfully. Sometimes the story tellers are put into contrast with their younger selves in frame.  Footage of the surface of the moon is something I could look at on its own for whatever length of tape lasts.  Seeing a man moving about on the surface brings a tangible aspect you just don’t get from a static shot on the cover of Life.  The moon looks like a beach at night, yet fully illuminated.  Having the opportunity to see this all upon a theater screen was a real treat.  You get a first person point of view as the lunar rover bounces across the surface and damn does it look fun.  David Singleton took archived NASA footage, living American treasures, and told a story with their voices that American’s have forgotten.

Perhaps part of the reason for this is that as our cities grow larger, and the light they give off begins penetrating farther into the reaches of space, we find less to look up to.  Or maybe it is the affluence of progress that has made us complacent to the idea of space travel.  We live in a time where toasters have silicon chips in them, a call across the Atlantic Ocean costs pennies, and we have men who have walked on the moon.  The first two are tangible to anyone; the last is only fully appreciated by the surviving nine men who did it.  So the rest of the world may think the idea of going back to the moon is interesting, but would dismiss its importance because they would never get the chance themselves. 
You know, if there is one thing missing from In the Shadow of the Moon, I would say it was an interview of the man that started it all for America.  I wonder what President Kennedy would have to say about the world he see’s in 2007, almost 50 years after he made his commitment to put a man in space.  I wonder what he would say about a public that could identify Paris Hilton faster than Buzz Aldrin (I am just as guilty for this).  But then, would we have accomplished his vision had he not been assassinated?  It took eight years to accomplish the goal of going to the moon when we as a nation put our best minds, and lowest bidders to the task.  Ill restate my position on manned space travel to another world, taken from a piece I wrote on the morning Space Shuttle Columbia never came home. Will we choose to live in a world in which all challenges are perceived as taken?  A world where the gravity of an achievement lessens just because it was done before?  It is this lot of thinking that separates us from making the bold, risk laden moves that had us protecting President Kennedy’s dream to accomplish a task

“Not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

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