I don’t quite know why, but I almost missed experiencing the absolute heart-swell of Artemis II.
This, people, is one of the dangers of spending too much time orbiting in your own head, and too little time paying attention to the wider universe.
But on Easter Sunday, family members were expressing excitement about this space mission, and I sort of snapped in. We all started reminiscing about the Apollo missions, telling the indelible story of July, 1969 when we as children were pulled out of bed to watch Neil Armstrong walk on the moon.
I don’t always love being so very old, but I’m very happy that I was alive and on this planet in order to witness this event in 1969.
Last weekend I was at an awards ceremony/gala/thingy that Bruno and I attend each year in Washington.
[Wearing, by the way, the wonderful dress I always wear to this event. I will wear this dress until it is worn out. I love it that much.]
[Pregaming]
One of the nine awardees this year (and the only one I was deeply interested in) is the retired astronaut Commander Eileen Collins, the first woman to ever pilot the Space Shuttle and to command a space mission.
Col. Collins piloted the Shuttle into space on what happened to be the NASA program’s first trip after the Challenger tragedy.
We all have our individual ideas of what it means to be brave, but for me, Col Collins pretty much covers all the bases.
Colonel Collins (she asked me to call her Eileen) has a background that would defeat many people: an alcoholic father, a mother with mental illness, PLUS she is from Elmira, NY, which is a tough and rusty little city near where I live (I frequently find myself driving on Eileen Collins Boulevard).
She and I bonded over our hometown roots — or maybe I’m the only one of the two of us who bonded. (I’m overall very bondy,)
What can I say? Eileen Collins is an absolutely amazing person, and she conveys both warmth and humility with a sort of ramrod straight reserve — inspired, I suppose, by her career in the military. (Basic history recap: Sally Ride was the first American woman to go into space. Eileen Collins was the first woman to do basically everything else, as an Air Force test pilot and Space Shuttle pilot and commander.)
Eileen Collins epitomizes the concept described so well by Ann Richards regarding Ginger Rogers.
Basically it goes like this:
Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but “backwards and in heels.”
What I am trying to say is that Eileen Collins seems heroic and … unflappable.
Fortunately for me, I got to see this astronaut in an exuberant moment, when the onstage Award-y events on Friday night were paused so we could all witness Artemis II coming back to Earth.
This veteran astronaut was handed a microphone and, from the stage, proudly gave a play-by-play as Artemis II splashed down.
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