To the Moon & beyond

The evening of July 20, 1969, I sat transfixed staring at the television along with other staff members of the summer camp where I was working. We were watching the unbelievable. In awe, we saw astronaut Neil Armstrong step onto the lunar surface with the words, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”

In the 57 years since, we have seen other spectacular space flights. Most recently, the Artemis II Orion spacecraft rocketed into space with a diverse crew of four astronauts. Their mission? To travel into space farther than any human being had ever traveled before. Their space voyage to the moon captured the imagination and emotional investment of innumerable people back on Earth. It was exciting and uplifting to share the adventure taking place 238,856 miles away!

USA Today writers, Amanda Lee Myers and Marc Ramirez in their article in The Indianapolis Star April 12, 2026, wrote that the impact in the USA was “The wonder of it all helped us forget our differences – at least for a few spins of the Earth.” In this same article, an aerospace watercolor painter, Jade Boudreaux, was quoted as saying, “There is something special inside of you that you have in common with every other person watching … It’s innate. It’s in your heart and it’s in your soul. It’s very human.”

The mission pilot, Victor Glover, spoke for all the members of the crew when he observed while in space that “We’re still able to feel your love from Earth. And to all of you down there on Earth, and around the Earth, we love you from the moon.” The power of love knows no bounds!

A time capsule buried in Philadelphia on July 4, 2026, will be unearthed 250 years from now. What contents for that time capsule – what objects, what documents, what history – would we choose to represent the USA in 2026? What message would we want to communicate to those in 2276 who would be “discovering” who we were July 4, 2026? Would that message relay that we were “One nation under God?”

The Artemis II astronauts also experienced something that other astronauts sensed when looking out of their spacecraft and viewing our planet Earth – the “overview effect.” The Indianapolis Star published an article on April 11, 2026, explaining this phenomenon further. “Space philosopher Frank White coined the phrase in 1987, and astronauts for decades have described a similar feeling: the realization that everyone back on Earth shares more in common than we realize. The phenomenon leads to the realization that borders and divisions aren’t visible from space.”

In England when I was a graduate student, I shared the experience with 49 other students chosen from around the world. The first week I met three women: an Italian, a German, and an Iraqi. We four began to spend our free time together. By the end of the second week, I was astonished to realize “We’re becoming FRIENDS!” We grew up in different countries! How could this be?

The answer? We are all human beings made in God’s image. The foundation of civility is the simple truth that human beings are ALL deserving of respect. We can choose to live “beyond borders” that divide us. We can choose to love and not hate. We can take time to get to know someone different from us.

A final reflection: these words from author Rick Warren are worth pondering:

“The best use of life is love. The best expression of love is time. The best time to love is now.”

Nancy Kelly Smith is a retired English professor and published author. She is also an Ambassador for the national civility organization Civic Renaissance. Learn more at civic-renaissance.com.