Where I'd like to have been

There are moments in life of real and piercing joy. You know, like when you realize your girlfriend is going to be you wife, when your children are born, when the team you're on wins or when you personally accomplish something you've worked very hard on or overcome a challenge.

And then there are the significant moments in others lives for which you would have loved to be around. Here are a couple of examples that have come to mind recently.

When Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity was shown to accurately predict the odd shift in Mercury's orbit which Newtonian principles couldn't justify he exclaimed, "I was beside myself with joyous excitement... as if something had snapped... The results of Mercury's perihelion movement fills me with great satisfaction..."

A friend of his said, "This discovery was, I believe, by far the strongest emotional experience in Einstein's scientific life, perhaps in all his life."

Einstein had, years earlier, in a fit of personal and intellectual devotion, produced a series of papers outlining discoveries so remarkable that they turned physics on its head and earned 1905 the title "The Miracle Year". Special Relativity was one of the products. Special Relativity was limited, however, to describing constant-velocity motion.

He determined then to generalize the theory to include variable-velocity motion. For ten years he devoted himself to the effort and furiously applied himself to the work. His General Theory of Relativity that today defines physics and that benefits all of us daily was the result.

To have been in the room when the Mercury calculations were completed! To have interacted with him in the days and weeks after! What profound amazement he must have felt and radiated and indeed that those around him later described. I wish *I'd* been there.


And then there's Alan Shepard, the 1st American (beat to 1st human by the Russian Yuri Gagarin) in space and the 5th astronaut to set foot on the moon.

After his triumphant 15 minute shot into space to become the first American to exit the atmosphere and before he could fly another coveted Mercury mission, Shepard was diagnosed with Meniere's syndrome - a disease that produced vertigo and took him off the flight roster. With there being no cure for Meniere's his grounded status was indefinite. Lesser men would have left the astronaut corps to pursue other interests. Not Shepard. He continued to serve, study and labor at NASA with undying hope that he would one day, not just fly again, but get a chance to prove his skills. He remained grounded through the entire Gemini program, sent his peers off on mission after mission, watched Niel Armstrong take his giant leap and grimaced and rejoiced through Apollo 13. Then, after ten years of waiting, a new surgery cured him and training brought him back into full astronauthood allowing him to victoriously pilot Apollo 14 to the moon having never lost hope.

The moment that thrills me and that shows one of Alan Sheppard's best attributes - his ability to be awed at moments worthy of appreciation - came just before 9am on Friday, February 5th, 1971 just after stepping off the Lunar Lander into the dust of the Imbrium Sea.

Andrew Chaikin in his book A Man On The Moon describes it best...

"Shepard realized that, finally, everything was going well. After all they had been through, he felt sure he would have his full-up mission. He took a moment to lean back so that he could look up into the black sky, and near the zenith his gaze found a small and lovely blue-and-white crescent. Suddenly he was overcome by the beauty of the earth, by the undeniable majesty of Fra Mauro, and by his own feeling of relief. Standing on the gray dust of this promised land, Shepard cried. For several long moments, while the checklist went unnoticed, his tears flowed in spite of himself."

Meanwhile, up in the Command Module, Stu Roosa watched the moon circle past his view port while "How Great Thou Art." sounded from the ship's tape player...

When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works Thy hands have made
I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art.

It's not so much that I'd like to have witnessed the moment as it is that I'd like to have gotten myself there to witness the earth above me and to savor the taste of personal as well as shared victory.

Do you have an example? Maybe one I could research? Let me know in the comments and I'll do a follow-up blog.