And the jury's still out, I think, on whether or not this was a good thing. The US is, of course, the only country to have landed men there (six times between 1969 and 1972), but we haven't done it since, which is really somewhat surprising. I heard Neil deGrasse Tyson, the new, black, Carl Sagan, on NPR as I was brush-hogging my little section of Earth yesterday, and he said he was 10 years old for that first landing, and figured that it would be a pretty regular occurrence after that, at least a monthly thing.
Why did we stop so completely? Some blame staggering costs; the money that would otherwise be spent on such an ambitious Space Program would be far better spent on terrestrial projects. As a staunch stay-at-home Yankee, I heartily endorse that position, but wonder why, then, we aren't in fact spending that money on those in need. Others blame lack of political will, which kind of goes hand-in-hand with the financial piece, I'm sure. Still others say that we don't have the ability to plan and see through such long-term projects; on the face of it that seems odd: if we could do it back then, why would we have lost the ability? But, then, given the frenetic, decreased-attention-span, 140 characters-at a-time-society (is this a hyphen-heavy post, or what?) we've become, maybe that's true. And of course there are people who insist that we've never really done it at all, that those "landings" all took place on Hollywood soundstages. Whatever the reason, we've certainly folded the lunar tent; it's not unlikely that the next person on the moon will be Chinese. And some people believe that it's too late anyway, that our ever having gone there has screwed the moon up, that the moon we used to know is no longer.
In 1977, I did my first stint as an Acworth resident, for about 8 months. I rented a little timber-framed house on Rte. 123A, really quite a charming place for the most part. During that time I subscribed to (or "took," as old-timers would say) The Keene Sentinel, an afternoon daily newspaper. My paper"boy" was himself an old Yankee, in his seventies, who drove a battered old Jeep Cherokee. One evening, after getting home from work, I walked down the driveway to see if the paper had arrived, at just the time he pulled up to the delivery tube. There was a nearly-full moon that evening, with a large ring around it, which everyone I knew knew meant rain coming soon. We shot the breeze for a few minutes, the paperoldtimer and I, and eventually talk came around to that celestial sight and its forecasting properties. His view? "Yep, time was you could tell the weather from a ring around the moon like that, but ever since we went there, you can't tell nuthin' from it." As my favorite plumber is fond of saying, "Shit luck beats science every time."
Below you'll find a real writer's take on the above anecdote. It's a poem from Alice B. Fogel's collection titled Elemental:
Objects In Mirror Are
Closer Than They Appear
It’s
hard to tell
that
the face of the moon
is
as much like a man’s
as
god’s. Out yonder,
in
the world without us,
who’s
to say? –
Either
we get in the way,
or
things make use of us.
Half-way
around the globe
from
where they started,
the
static sound of starlings
echoes
off the barn roof.
Spiders
weave in the spokes
of
wheels, and stars
circle
unsuspecting suns.
Little
do we know,
the
world has a talent
for
making itself at home.
Meanwhile,
we paint our self-
portraits
on everything
imaginable,
then hold
them
up like mirrors.
Our
mercurial brushes
grow
longer, our skills
more
acute. Dust clouds
the
vision, tinder
to
the eye. So we burn
trees
to save the forests, burn
air
to fly afar. We do, we say.
We
can. The time
is
close at hand. Time was
(said
a man)
you
could tell the weather from the moon.
That
was before another
broke
the quicksilver distance
and
walked all over it.
Now
you can’t tell a thing.
So there'll be lots of "moon" songs this week, although they barely scratch the surface of possibilities from my collection. Herewith, what I think is my favorite playlist in my 4 year DJ career:
Bad Moon Rising Creedence Clearwater Revival
Banjo Moon Greg Brown
Beautiful Moons Benny Green
Billboard On The Moon (Live) Dirk Hamilton
Blue Moon Dylan
Black Moon Wilco
Blue Moon Beck
Bringing Down The Moon John Stewart
Cajun Moon J.J. Cale
Calling The Moon Dar Williams
Casablanca Moonlight Michael Nesmith
Child Of The Moon Rolling Septuagenarians
Circus On The Moon Bruce Hornsby
Clocks And Spoons John Prine
Shoot The Moonlight Out Garland Jeffreys
Man On The Moon R.E.M.
Armstrong John Stewart
Drunk On The Moon Tom Waits
Every Inch A Moon Dirk Hamilton
Drawing Down The Moon Steve Tibbets
Eldorado To The Moon Michael Nesmith
Fly Me To The Moon Bobby Womack
Goodnight Moon Shivaree
Grapefruit Moon Tom Waits
Hey You (Looking At The Moon) Graham Nash
Here Comes The Moon George Harrison
How High The Moon Emmylou Harris
It's Only A Paper Moon Barney Kessel/Stephane Grappelli
Kiko And The Lavender Moon Los Lobos
Moonage Daydream David Bowie
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress Charlie Haden/ Pat Metheny
Pink Moon Nick Drake
Sun Loves Moon Nick Robertson
Once In A Blue Moon Van Morrison
Moonlight Sonata Ludwig Van Beethoven
I'm sure I've left out some of your favorites but, basically, tough shit-- so I sure hope you'll tune in Tuesday, from noon till two on Wool FM, 91.5, or wool.fm on the webs.
A couple more things: Charlie Haden and Bobby Womack both recently passed, so their songs are both doing double-duty, as songs for the theme and as tributes.
And I saw a bumper sticker yesterday in Alstead on a truck with Vermont plates that said "Guns Don't Kill People:Abortion Clinics Do." I was impressed by that. In 7 short words, 2 assertions, both of which I vehemently disagree with. A-plus for conciseness, at least....
Apropos of nothing, _Goodnight Moon_ was my favorite book as a little kid. My parents had it memorized.
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