Today I visited the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, and in the Apollo/Saturn V Center there is a moon rock, collected on Apollo 17, available to touch. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to space, escaping the context of the world and seeing it from without. That will never happen for me. But there is a rock in Florida I can touch. There is an ancient stone that came to us from another world, brought here by the greatest technical achievement in human history. I nearly cried.
What struck me, is it’s entirely smooth. Moon rocks are volcanic basalts, never weathered by wind or water. They are rough and unpleasant. This one was made smooth by guests like me, thousands, touching it gently over years of visits. The most foreign, most lifeless and barren stone, is intimately connected with a global slice of humanity. Through it, I am too. I nearly cried.