Moon story

Lovely quote from an excellent interview with the last human on the Moon, Eugene Cernan – now subject of a documentary film soon to be released – in the Guardian:

He and Harrison Schmitt spent three days on the moon’s surface. “People say, ‘What was it really like up there?’ Or they’ll ask, ‘Did you find God?’ What I remember was that I felt like I had shaped up.” Was he able to have a break and at least try to take in the wonder of it all? “Well, you couldn’t not. We saw some dazzling, extraordinary things, and you had to take time to appreciate them. I mean, not too many people get to see an Earth-rise.” He pauses for a long time. “When I was boarding the lunar module for the last time and I looked at my footprints, I knew I wouldn’t be coming back. That was the one moment when I wanted to stop time.”

I like that mixture of pragmatism and wonder.