I was on vacation walking down a wooded road in the Pocono
Mountains in Pennsylvania on July 20, 2019, the 50th anniversary of
the first moon walk in 1969. I was remembering Neil Armstrong on TV descending
the ladder of the lunar landing module when I was 13.
My thoughts shifted when I picked up a rock on the side of
the road which held a fossil of a brachiopod sea shell. I was standing
approximately 1,700 feet above sea level, over 100 miles away from the Atlantic
Ocean. The fossil reminded me that at various times in Earth’s history, most of
North America was submerged under ocean water.
I had read this in a book I received for my 13th birthday in
1969: The Sea Around Us, published in
1950 by Rachel Carson. The book made me ponder our planet and humanity — much
like the moon walk.