Absence.

Absence.

December 17, 2012, 11:14 am
Filed under: Apollo program, General Musings, NASA, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Society, Space, Violence | Tags: Apollo 11, blogging, grief, jim downey, joy, loss, Michael Collins, NASA, space

We all know grief. The empty place at the holiday table. The hole in the heart. The missing man. Someone who is gone too soon.

In many ways, absence defines us.

But sometimes, those stars which have vanished from the firmament aren’t gone, they’re just removed from our limited sight. They’re not visible in the day, after all.*

And sometimes, the absence defines something else, bringing perspective, even joy:

“I feel this powerfully — not as fear or loneliness — but as awareness, anticipation, satisfaction, confidence, almost exultation. I like the feeling. Outside my window I can see stars — and that is all. Where I know the moon to be, there is simply a black void, the moon’s presence is defined solely by the absence of stars.”

 

Jim Downey

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