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.
RTWT at: Only one member of the human race missing from this 1969 photograph
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From my youth up I never liked the city.
I never forgot the mountains where I was born.
The world caught me and harnessed me
And drove me through dust, thirty years away from home.
Migratory birds return to the same tree.
Fish find their way back to the pools where they were hatched.
I have been over the whole country,
And I have come back at last to the garden of my childhood.
My farm is only ten acres.
The farm house has eight or nine rooms.
Elms and willows shade the back garden.
Peach trees stand by the front door.
The village is out of sight.
You can hear dogs bark in the alleys,
And cocks crow in the mulberry trees.
When you come through the gate into the court
You will find no dust or mess.
Peace and quiet live in every room.
I am content to stay here the rest of my life.
At last I have found myself.
— Tao Yuan Ming (Tao Qian) Chinese, 365-427
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.