This almost slipped by me

Today is the 22nd anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion.

Here's the Wiki on it

I remember the day. I was just getting ready to leave the house for work, and as I walked through the living room, I saw them cut away to the news. Needless to say, I was late for work that day.

Isn't it interesting how we can so easily recall the disasters and tragedies in our collective lives. Each generation has their moments that make time seem to stop. Pearl Harbor, Kennedy's assassination, landing on the moon, Reagan being shot, the Challenger disaster, and of course 9/11/2001. Some of these seem to affect all people equally, and others are much more personal to some than to others, but these are the moments we look back on and say, "I remember what I was doing when..."

Today, that reminiscence is for Challenger, her crew, and their families-

High Flight
by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds...and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of...wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up, the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor even eagle flew.
And while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space...
...put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

Tags-Challenger