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  We Never Landed on the Moon

  Oct 12, 2016

  Nearly 50 years ago, my mother was convinced that our amazing landing on the moon was entirely fabricated. It was, she surmised, performed on some soundstage in a TV studio, or perhaps acted out in the desert Southwest somewhere. At night.

  Before you dismiss Mom as a complete lunatic (rest her soul), there were a lot of people at the time who thought these very same things. Many perfectly bright, rational people in 1969 were absolutely convinced the whole moon landing thing was fake; and if you step back a few feet and look at what actually happened, how could they think otherwise? They had no way of comprehending something as completely bizarre as landing on another planet — it was the stuff of science fiction and lunatics when they were growing up. 

  If you look at Mom’s (and others’) conclusions, you’ll see these are the very things that create a lot of trouble in our own lives when we encounter something that doesn't fit into our knowledge and experience buckets. We just don’t know what we don't know. But that doesn't prevent us from believing anyway. And being convinced that "our" belief is fact. 

  But remember: A. Belief. Is. Just. A. Belief. 

  It sometimes takes a leap at least as bold as Neil Armstrong's last step off the lunar lander's ladder to the surface of the moon to open our minds to something that just might not fit into the mosaic of what we know.

  So, what do you know? What do you believe?

   

  (By the way: why didn’t they put at least one more rung on that ladder so a guy wearing a clumsy, bulky spacesuit -- and whose vision was severely restricted -- didn’t have to make that wild-assed “leap” (more like fall) down to the moon’s surface?)

   

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