William Shatner Speaks About His Blue Origin Trip to Space

“It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered. The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness. Every day, we are confronted with the knowledge of further destruction of Earth at our hands: the extinction of animal species, of flora and fauna . . . things that took five billion years to evolve, and suddenly we will never see them again because of the interference of mankind. It filled me with dread. My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration; instead, it felt like a funeral.”

It’s not uncommon for space travelers to have profound thoughts as they look back at the Blue Planet. When I was in grade school in the 60s, we watched a movie in which an early astronaut related his feelings of awe that there are “no lines, no borders” on the Earth’s surface.  All the force we apply to divide up the planet into (often warring) countries is entirely artificial.