The eternal third-grader somewhere deep inside me remembers Alan Shepard and his amazing rapid rocket ride. The whole sub-orbital nature of his journey in comparison to the Soviet cosmonauts’ space flights was meaningless. If I had known how to spell nuance, that, too, would have been wasted on me, but totally appropriate.
Thank goodness for third grade. Because when you’re in third-grade you don’t see the effort and toil behind The Work, just the rocket blast, and the liftoff. [Insert your favorite DJT is a spoiled child joke here: ___]. Such a deal.
I should have stayed in better touch with that third grader as I was thinking about him the other day watching reports on the Space X lift off as it disappeared into the sky over Florida. All I can say is that Elon Musk! Quite an achievement for a guy from a shithole country.
 |
| I'd like to think the left blinker is forever on. |
The long-ago third grader was very nearly in mortal sin trouble, he found out many years later from his mom, for asking the Sister of Charity nun leading us in a discussion of the launch we had listened to on the PA, ‘what direction is heaven when you’re in a space capsule?’
However, Mom, the lioness, explained to the Mother Superior on the phone that she thought her cub had asked an excellent question and wondered what the equally excellent answer might have been. Thus endeth that lesson.
Okay, it wasn't exactly the same as nailing the 95 Theses to the cathedral door but perhaps I should have realized that close encounter was a harbinger for the sea of troubles that were to lie ahead in nearly every transaction between that third grader and the Rock Upon which The Church Was Built from that day forward.
Still, it’s nice to think sometimes, you have to go left at the Moon to get to Heaven and at other times it’s in a whole ‘nother direction and may involve a tunnel or even a ferry.
-bill kenny
No comments:
Post a Comment