Upon hearing of the death of astronaut Wally Schirra my thoughts took me back 45 years or so. I was in elementary school when several of the historic U.S. space flights occurred. If the launch or re-entry took place during school hours, the teacher rolled in a black and white television and we watched history being made.
I was, of course, too young to understand much about it all, but it seemed to be an exciting and outstanding accomplishment to actually send people into space. For some reason, Wally Schirra was my favorite astronaut, and I knew the names of the rest of the Mercury Seven. Shirra was a bit like Mickey Mantle in my young mind, talented and heroic. I liked watching him on television, either piloting a rocket or providing expert commentary when other space missions were underway. It's difficult for me to envision him as an 84 year old man.
So much seemed possible in those days. Achievement and excellence were held up for our aspiration. Baby boomers like me were told we could do and be anything, and we believed it.
But, the older we got, the more complicated things became. We still were very young when Camelot disappeared, and we realized it really was just an illusion, anyway. In fact, things got very ugly very quickly. The world in which anything seemed possible turned into a scary place where it became difficult to trust "anyone over 30."
Now I'm ambivalent about the importance or necessity of the space program. I think the money would be better spent on job training and economic development in neglected city neighborhoods and dying small towns. There is far less collective celebration of human achievement because instead of working together toward common, positive goals we are suspicious of others, paranoid and increasingly self-isolating.
I guess it's somewhat understandable that some want to cling to the familiar and the comforting in the face of the challenges and changes swirling around us. But when it's the church of the "good old days" we seek to maintain or restore we discover that it, like Camelot, also was an illusion.
People are searching for something more meaningful.