On this day in 1961, for the first time in all of human history, a human being left the safety of our atmosphere and entered the vast expanse of the cosmos.
On April 12, 1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first human to bridge the gap between the earth and entered the void launching to orbit aboard the Vostok 3KA-2. For 108 minutes this man, born of a peasant family in the village of Klushino Russia, orbited the earth.
I never learned of this man in grade school. Nor did I learn about him in High school, nor in college. Instead I was inundated with the patriotic propaganda of our society. It was only by searching out, by my own volition that I came across the supreme accomplishment of not only this man but of the scientists and persons that put him there.
So I toast to you today, Mr. Gagarin, for you were the first to enter the greatest of human mysteries.
“The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us- there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries.”
-Carl Sagan, Cosmos
About Me
- The Rational Protagonist
- Rational: proceeding or derived from reason or based on reasoning: a rational explanation. Protagonist: From the Greek, to act ones part. Part Humanist, Part Naturalist, Artist, observer, Scientist, Part time Atheist, Human Being. This is the culmination of a lifetime of being surrounded by amazing thinkers. My grandfather, Father, and mother certainly played a role. As did my ninth grade Humanities teacher, Edna Mae Roten. There came a point where I could just no longer coast by in life. I watched my son growing up in a world of insanity, superstition, and rampant greed. It was time, time for me to do something. I can also be found: http://therationalprotagonist.blogspot.com/ http://simonspeaks.livejournal.com/
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