One giant leap for coffee

When Neil Armstrong took those first historic steps on the Moon I was a 13-year-old securely tucked behind the “Pine Curtain” of Southeast Texas. 

Things were fairly slow filtering through the cultural walls juxtaposed between the Old South and the Southwest. Yet due to the wonders of that little black and white box known as television, I was able to see Armstrong take those first few steps and proclaim mankind had taken a giant leap.

The world is pretty scary for kids. It is even more full of consternation for one entering into puberty. Given the context of the times — 1969 — the world made exceptionally less sense.

A war was raging in Southeast Asia. The assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were fresh in our minds. All kinds of  radicals lurked about. Less than a month after the Moon landing the so-called “Tate-LaBianca Murders” would take place and we would get a glimpse of that wild-eyed sociopath Charles Manson.

So, that man — specifically American man — had landed on the Moon for the first time was quite a respite for me from all the weirdness that was life.

Much has happened since that day, 40 years ago today. I am 53. Life is still strange and not all that much clearer in meaning. I am sitting here about to publish something over what’s called the Internet. My cell phone is sitting nearby. And then there is Starbucks.

Our last president up and decided we need to go back to the Moon. I never totally understood why we ever left. Perhaps it was a political thing. I suppose it is less easy for nations to get into a snit over territory when  one talks about something floating out in space as opposed to a base built on a natural satellite.

So now we talk about going back. But it appears that won’t happen until 2020. That’s about 11 years or so. It didn’t take that long to get there once we made up our mind to do it. We should have already been on Mars by now, one would think. Now people are bickering over whether we should go back to the Moon or travel to Mars. Maybe we should just bypass Mars altogether and land on Saturn. It looks a lot cooler what with the rings.

Wherever we, mankind, ends up going in space we will probably settle it and exploit whatever resources the body has to the best of our abilities. You will also probably see a Starbucks located at each and every pod on the planet. Grande Caffè Latte anyone?