March 26th, 2021
What still puts you in awe?
On July 20th, 1969, human beings from the planet Earth, improbably and against substantial odds, landed on the Moon and took a walk on it.
To say it was a big deal would short change the actual events.
Over half a billion people watched it unfold live on television. It radically changed mankind in a very visceral and immediate way.
Just weeks ago, we landed the most sophisticated rover to date — not on our own Moon, but another planet entirely.
It is truly mind-blowing when you think about it.
And, culturally, it hardly made a blip.
That isn’t altogether surprising. The lack of appreciation is apparent in a society that really does have it all. Who knew that Shania Twain would be revealed to have been so prophetic? Seriously: nothing impresses us much.
As someone who lived half his life before technology really bloomed as it has and now half after it, I think about how great things are all the time.
As I opened my clunky plastic case housing a Bambi VHS tape as a child, I never could have imagined that I would actually have the entire Disney library at my fingertips, collected in a literal cloud.
As a kid who basically accepted that I would never have an easy way to reach my deaf parents when I was away from home, the idea that I could send them words through a computer in my pocket was nothing more than wishful science-fiction.
I could go on (and should, if you’re feeling particularly ungrateful today), but I just want you to think about it.
What still makes your heart soar and your head spin?
What simply amazes you?
Because, in this existence, there is more that should than should not.
The Den 