WHEN in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary….
Only one member of the human race is missing from this 1969 photograph
byVanderleunonJuly 21, 2021
There are iconic photographs well known to most of us, and this image, taken by Michael Collins, is especially significant. It shows the lunar module Eagle, with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on board and the Earth in the background. What is so unusual about this photograph is that Michael Collins is the only inhabitant of planet Earth, dead or alive or still to be born, that does not appear in it.
Putting myself in Michael Collins’ shoes, I have never felt so lonely. We really do need each other.
JessieJune 29, 2017, 5:49 PM
What happened to Mondo Bizarro?
Miss old website format 🙁
DaphneJune 29, 2017, 5:59 PM
I don’t visit much anymore and when I do, rarely leave a comment. My life is busy in other ways these days, but you still stay on my mind.
I love the new header and format, Gerard. It’s gorgeous and fresh.
Best to you and much love.
Buzz KillingtonJune 29, 2017, 6:39 PM
Ummm, what about everybody on the back half of earth?
Millie_woodsJune 29, 2017, 7:34 PM
What a lonely thought. I wonder if Michael Collins realized that at the time.
itorJune 29, 2017, 8:42 PM
Huh, no stars visible. That’s weird, since stars can be seen
even with a full moon.
Must be the full earth, or the fstop?
jrcJune 30, 2017, 6:31 AM
Seems quite a stretch to appear poetic.
NoriJune 30, 2017, 6:55 AM
The force of will to maintain his own sanity is remarkable. America still produces men of this caliber,they just are not venerated as they once were.
EskymanJune 30, 2017, 12:24 PM
I was one of the tiny, insignificant cogs in the machine which accomplished this wonder; I’ll always be proud of that.
I’ll always miss the country which could bring about such achievements. Maybe it will live again; I hope so.
gwbnycJuly 21, 2021, 5:16 AM
astute.
and remindful.
************
“Mike Collins realized”- from memory many astronauts/cosmonauts describe in few, powerful words the utter beauty of the planet and the lack of that understanding by its inhabitants. At that range the horror is hidden, and known.
Like almost everyone else I believed that we went to the moon. I don’t believe that any longer. I don’t believe anything government, industry, corporations and big pharma say about anything. The recent offered excuse of why we haven’t been back to the moon?? NASA says “We lost the technology.” Must have been in that box in the storage locker but the janitor threw it out. Here’s a collection of videos that should have any discerning intellect questioning if this moon thing ever happened. The third video down is interesting which shows set assistants helping astronauts into the capsule “on the moon.” The first video shows Buzz Aldren telling a little girl, “We never went there.” Believers will scold me for not believing. I don’t care. Take a vaxx while you’re at it. https://tinyurl.com/f49ysxx5
Fletcher ChristianJuly 21, 2021, 7:53 AM
itor: That is often said. And your explanation is right. Use an exposure long enough to be able to see the stars, and both Moon and Earth would be washed-out, overexposed blobs.
It is said it didn’t happen, disagree. That ere of men had fought hard battles for our freedoms.
Have a hard time believing The Greatest Generation, would allow such a cruel hoax upon our people.
Gotta believe their was honor amongst the men and women who once bleed lots of blood, for this still great nation for the right reasons.
Vi
ghostsniperJuly 21, 2021, 9:08 AM
Hey Dirk, Oswald killed Kennedy just a few short years prior.
Oh yeah, remember that Gulf of Tonkin thing?
Tom’s slightly less cynical than I.
Thanks for the link Tom.
You are entirely welcome, ghost. The real conspiracy theorists believe that government cares about them, the news media would never mislead or lie to them, and the pharmaceutical industry that makes multi billions from sickness wants to cure them. I’ve been lied to my entire life… everybody else heard nothing but the truth. Must be nice.
I know, I know, I simply can’t give up on these United States. It’s all I know. Agree things appear rotten to the core, I just see that our leaders are now, scum of the earth,,,,, are not the men and women who fought a World War.
Wore suits to mechanics Jobs where coveralls were then put on. Where Men not machines figured out just how to build complex stuff. Using slide rulers and trig on paper, not plug and play. Who figured shit out using their minds not a computer.
Our elders were a different breed, hard, god fearing, loyal men and women. Actually chopped wood, rather then purchase wood.
Sciences has literally dumbed the human down, made us soft. Not so, our parents our grand parents. As I write this I’m looking at a picture of my great grandfather, in BaggsWyoming , on a horse in the winter with a tie wool dinner jacket and slacks on, a lever action rifle in a scabbard, a handgun on his belt. Mean as a rattlesnake, sharp as a tack. A man of god. My great uncle with him, dressed and outfitted the same.
An oral history of the family was handed down. These were men’s men, who loved this land of opportunity. Sheep ranchers who learned to integrate with the cattle barons. “ Pierson” was the family name then their.
It’s interesting even those we know as “ The Wanderers” wrote of graft corruption in their times. This I know, we are not seeing anything new, this is simply history repeating itself. Greed and corruption are words bantered about buy those not involved in the taking, and making of history.
Being Stoic, I’m not loosing any sleep over it. It is, what it is. I’m fine with that.
I’m down with Dirk on every aspect of his comment.
james wilsonJuly 21, 2021, 1:23 PM
Dirk, 16 minutes of Spengler, Decline of the West (1922)
What you have been going on about. Cleverly matched with images added to aid our present version of sapiens, that is, those who haven’t read a book. Dense.
Also, Dirk, there was no “greatest generation”, judging by their kids. And what generation didn’t rise to the occasion, until more recently? Perhaps we judge them great only because we are so poor. The ordinary Americans that Tocqueville details from New England to Louisiana in 1831 were incomparably superior to any twentieth century model. The fix was in before the turn of the twentieth. We’ve been coasting all along since on a great heritage but this is the bottom of that hill.
Hey Dirk… go ahead and love America. And I applaud. It’s always been populated by brave, inventive and adventurous risk takers. There’s a lot to love. But these same ancestors you admire would have have been as skeptical as I when they’ve perceived something unbelievable too many times. You’ve been lied to. Realize it and then move forward with a bit more street smarts.
ghostsniperJuly 21, 2021, 2:38 PM
@Dirk, I too used to be patriotic, still am in another life. Just last night after supper my wife and I sat on the porch sippin’ tay and were talking about this very topic. We’re very much the same in this regard. I was born and partially raised in Gettysburg. Went to Sunday school at the church G Washington attended in Carlisle. Attended Cub Scouts at the Carlisle War College. My paternal grandfather is buried right next to Molly Pitcher. I come from a family with a long line of males that without question volunteered for the military. I am a twice disabled ex-army soldier that did most of my time in what was then the most dangerous place on the plant as an airborne combat engineer/medic.
By my mid 20’s the scales had started to dissolve from my eyes. My fantasy life was fading and the stark boldness of reality was become clearer constantly. To realize that almost everything I knew was exactly wrong and all the good things in life were not. I resisted this in the beginning but confusion is not my friend and I set out to clear the clouds of deception. It was like peeling a diseased onion, the more layers that came off the more rotten it was.
I realize now that the idea of america is not a patriotic gesture at all. It is a measure of self worth and the recognized value in common ground. Imaginary lines on a globe do not describe the idea of america except for a particular point in time, which no longer exists. I could be patriotic again, in the traditional sense, and I would like to be so, but for that to happen I know that a whole lot of rotten must be removed first. The sooner it starts the faster recovery can begin. Until then I bide my time and make the best of everything as well as I can. Avoid crowds.
ButchJuly 21, 2021, 3:44 PM
I miss that country more and more every day.
I’ve said it before (probably here) and I’ll say it again: We traded the stars for the Great Society. Of course, the recipents are ungrateful. We chose poorly.
I get it, I wasn’t taught how to quit!, na, I will continue to love these United States, to the end. Those men and women who modeled how to live life were giants in my eyes.
It’s never been a goal to save the country, just my family, those around me. Hell I don’t even like most of em, yet understand the necessity of surrounding ones self with skills sets we don’t have.
It is your Elected officials whom have doomed you, not this great nation. The United States is still the land of opportunity. Each of us has been afforded the opportunity to be as rich or as poor as we choose to be.
To be as educated or not as we choose. Na being born in the United States doesn’t grant us any special privlage,
After scanning its face again and again,
I began to scale it, picking my holds
With intense caution. About half-way
To the top, I was suddenly brought to
A dead stop, with arms outspread
Clinging close to the face of the rock
Unable to move hand or foot
Either up or down. My doom
Appeared fixed. I MUST fall.
There would be a moment of
Bewilderment, and then,
A lifeless rumble down the cliff
To the glacier below.
My mind seemed to fill with a
Stifling smoke. This terrible eclipse
Lasted only a moment, when life blazed
Forth again with preternatural clearness.
I seemed suddenly to become possessed
Of a new sense. My trembling muscles
Became firm again, every rift and flaw in
The rock was seen as through a microscope,
My limbs moved with a positiveness and precision
With which I seemed to have
Nothing at all to do.
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Gerard Van der Leun
1692 MANGROVE AVE
APT 379
Chico, Ca 95926
Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
![That Was the Whopper Weekend That Was [Illustrated]](https://americandigest.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/welcometohell-150x150.jpg "That Was the Whopper Weekend That Was [Illustrated]")
![Allen Ginsberg: The Interview, <strong> ➡ 1972 ⬅ </strong> [Republished by unpopular demand]](https://americandigest.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/ginsbergnirvana-150x150.jpg "Allen Ginsberg: The Interview, <strong> ➡ 1972 ⬅ </strong> [Republished by unpopular demand]")
Comments on this entry are closed.
Putting myself in Michael Collins’ shoes, I have never felt so lonely. We really do need each other.
What happened to Mondo Bizarro?
Miss old website format 🙁
I don’t visit much anymore and when I do, rarely leave a comment. My life is busy in other ways these days, but you still stay on my mind.
I love the new header and format, Gerard. It’s gorgeous and fresh.
Best to you and much love.
Ummm, what about everybody on the back half of earth?
What a lonely thought. I wonder if Michael Collins realized that at the time.
Huh, no stars visible. That’s weird, since stars can be seen
even with a full moon.
Must be the full earth, or the fstop?
Seems quite a stretch to appear poetic.
The force of will to maintain his own sanity is remarkable. America still produces men of this caliber,they just are not venerated as they once were.
I was one of the tiny, insignificant cogs in the machine which accomplished this wonder; I’ll always be proud of that.
I’ll always miss the country which could bring about such achievements. Maybe it will live again; I hope so.
astute.
and remindful.
************
“Mike Collins realized”- from memory many astronauts/cosmonauts describe in few, powerful words the utter beauty of the planet and the lack of that understanding by its inhabitants. At that range the horror is hidden, and known.
Like almost everyone else I believed that we went to the moon. I don’t believe that any longer. I don’t believe anything government, industry, corporations and big pharma say about anything. The recent offered excuse of why we haven’t been back to the moon?? NASA says “We lost the technology.” Must have been in that box in the storage locker but the janitor threw it out. Here’s a collection of videos that should have any discerning intellect questioning if this moon thing ever happened. The third video down is interesting which shows set assistants helping astronauts into the capsule “on the moon.” The first video shows Buzz Aldren telling a little girl, “We never went there.” Believers will scold me for not believing. I don’t care. Take a vaxx while you’re at it. https://tinyurl.com/f49ysxx5
itor: That is often said. And your explanation is right. Use an exposure long enough to be able to see the stars, and both Moon and Earth would be washed-out, overexposed blobs.
It is said it didn’t happen, disagree. That ere of men had fought hard battles for our freedoms.
Have a hard time believing The Greatest Generation, would allow such a cruel hoax upon our people.
Gotta believe their was honor amongst the men and women who once bleed lots of blood, for this still great nation for the right reasons.
Vi
Hey Dirk, Oswald killed Kennedy just a few short years prior.
Oh yeah, remember that Gulf of Tonkin thing?
Tom’s slightly less cynical than I.
Thanks for the link Tom.
You are entirely welcome, ghost. The real conspiracy theorists believe that government cares about them, the news media would never mislead or lie to them, and the pharmaceutical industry that makes multi billions from sickness wants to cure them. I’ve been lied to my entire life… everybody else heard nothing but the truth. Must be nice.
I know, I know, I simply can’t give up on these United States. It’s all I know. Agree things appear rotten to the core, I just see that our leaders are now, scum of the earth,,,,, are not the men and women who fought a World War.
Wore suits to mechanics Jobs where coveralls were then put on. Where Men not machines figured out just how to build complex stuff. Using slide rulers and trig on paper, not plug and play. Who figured shit out using their minds not a computer.
Our elders were a different breed, hard, god fearing, loyal men and women. Actually chopped wood, rather then purchase wood.
Sciences has literally dumbed the human down, made us soft. Not so, our parents our grand parents. As I write this I’m looking at a picture of my great grandfather, in BaggsWyoming , on a horse in the winter with a tie wool dinner jacket and slacks on, a lever action rifle in a scabbard, a handgun on his belt. Mean as a rattlesnake, sharp as a tack. A man of god. My great uncle with him, dressed and outfitted the same.
An oral history of the family was handed down. These were men’s men, who loved this land of opportunity. Sheep ranchers who learned to integrate with the cattle barons. “ Pierson” was the family name then their.
It’s interesting even those we know as “ The Wanderers” wrote of graft corruption in their times. This I know, we are not seeing anything new, this is simply history repeating itself. Greed and corruption are words bantered about buy those not involved in the taking, and making of history.
Being Stoic, I’m not loosing any sleep over it. It is, what it is. I’m fine with that.
VI
@itor
https://www.planetary.org/articles/why-are-there-no-stars
I’m down with Dirk on every aspect of his comment.
Dirk, 16 minutes of Spengler, Decline of the West (1922)
What you have been going on about. Cleverly matched with images added to aid our present version of sapiens, that is, those who haven’t read a book. Dense.
https://odysee.com/@nativistconcern:0/oswaldspenglerthepress:c?r=3z9tryPnWbnHCsX7miaF2gHZsdDgpVfN
Also, Dirk, there was no “greatest generation”, judging by their kids. And what generation didn’t rise to the occasion, until more recently? Perhaps we judge them great only because we are so poor. The ordinary Americans that Tocqueville details from New England to Louisiana in 1831 were incomparably superior to any twentieth century model. The fix was in before the turn of the twentieth. We’ve been coasting all along since on a great heritage but this is the bottom of that hill.
Hey Dirk… go ahead and love America. And I applaud. It’s always been populated by brave, inventive and adventurous risk takers. There’s a lot to love. But these same ancestors you admire would have have been as skeptical as I when they’ve perceived something unbelievable too many times. You’ve been lied to. Realize it and then move forward with a bit more street smarts.
@Dirk, I too used to be patriotic, still am in another life. Just last night after supper my wife and I sat on the porch sippin’ tay and were talking about this very topic. We’re very much the same in this regard. I was born and partially raised in Gettysburg. Went to Sunday school at the church G Washington attended in Carlisle. Attended Cub Scouts at the Carlisle War College. My paternal grandfather is buried right next to Molly Pitcher. I come from a family with a long line of males that without question volunteered for the military. I am a twice disabled ex-army soldier that did most of my time in what was then the most dangerous place on the plant as an airborne combat engineer/medic.
By my mid 20’s the scales had started to dissolve from my eyes. My fantasy life was fading and the stark boldness of reality was become clearer constantly. To realize that almost everything I knew was exactly wrong and all the good things in life were not. I resisted this in the beginning but confusion is not my friend and I set out to clear the clouds of deception. It was like peeling a diseased onion, the more layers that came off the more rotten it was.
I realize now that the idea of america is not a patriotic gesture at all. It is a measure of self worth and the recognized value in common ground. Imaginary lines on a globe do not describe the idea of america except for a particular point in time, which no longer exists. I could be patriotic again, in the traditional sense, and I would like to be so, but for that to happen I know that a whole lot of rotten must be removed first. The sooner it starts the faster recovery can begin. Until then I bide my time and make the best of everything as well as I can. Avoid crowds.
I miss that country more and more every day.
I’ve said it before (probably here) and I’ll say it again: We traded the stars for the Great Society. Of course, the recipents are ungrateful. We chose poorly.
I get it, I wasn’t taught how to quit!, na, I will continue to love these United States, to the end. Those men and women who modeled how to live life were giants in my eyes.
It’s never been a goal to save the country, just my family, those around me. Hell I don’t even like most of em, yet understand the necessity of surrounding ones self with skills sets we don’t have.
It is your Elected officials whom have doomed you, not this great nation. The United States is still the land of opportunity. Each of us has been afforded the opportunity to be as rich or as poor as we choose to be.
To be as educated or not as we choose. Na being born in the United States doesn’t grant us any special privlage,