Arrival
Tonight, I found myself unexpectedly emotional over the return of Artemis II. I did not expect it to hit me the way it did, but it did. For a little while, the biggest story in the world was not about destruction. It was not about war, or hatred, or the constant low hum of fear that seems to hang over everything now. It was not about how close we always seem to be to some new catastrophe. For one brief, shining moment, the headline was something hopeful.
We sent human beings out into space and brought them home again. We did it not because we had to survive the week, not because we were forced by panic, but because we still chose to reach farther than where we are. There is something deeply moving about that. It feels like proof that, beneath all the noise and ugliness, we are still capable of wonder. We are still capable of pursuing something extraordinary simply because it calls to the best part of us.