DISCUSS: What Do You Miss?

We’re in Houston visiting our daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren. We visited the NASA Space Center. In watching the films about the Mercury and Apollo programs, I was filled with nostalgia. I lived through all of that and watched it unfold on live television.

I don’t miss the space programs–which I was way into as a kid–but what the films made me remember was the national unity we felt back then. Everybody, of all politics and stations in life, was fixated on those missions. I know, it was starting to come unravelled during the moon launches, what with the Viet Nam war, the Nixon presidency, and the generation gap. But seeing a human being step onto the moon was beyond all of that.

I miss that feeling of national unity. And I miss the sense that our nation could accomplish something like that. We went to the moon, but now our government can’t get websites to function correctly. I can’t imagine us taking on such a grandiose project, let alone doing so successfully. I loved the clip played from Kennedy’s speech on how we are going to the moon, “not because it is easy, but because it is hard.” Who has that attitude today?

So for this weekend’s discussion, I ask you, what do you miss? What do you recall that you value from your past, but which we don’t have anymore? What do you feel nostalgia for?