One Voice

It was a much needed, unifying highlight of the '60's - America landing men safely on the moon. It's tough to find someone old enough to remember who couldn't tell you exactly where they were as they watched those men bravely step out onto the surface of a new world. I was 15 years old and working as a bus boy at Phillips Chicken Pie Shop on Pine Ave. in downtown Long Beach. A crowd gathered behind the lunch counter and stared in disbelief, some prayed, we all cheered: just to see them safe... just to see them... we felt a little like the jetson's might really be our neighbors some day. It was an incredible moment.

The moment began with one man- our president -who challenged a nation to lift her eyes to a new horizon, beyond ourselves. Sadly, President Kennedy didn't live to share the world's celebration as some of our own sent home their incredible video journal. But it was his voice, his steadfastness, his inspiration that got the project going, set a deadline from the start and motivated us to believe that anything was possible.

Just one voice changed the way we looked at the world.

I once ate lunch with Jim Irwin, one of the other 12 men who eventually walked on the moon. I asked him all the same questions he'd probably been asked a million times before. I keep his photo, on the moon, autographed to me, just above my desk. He was a humble man who was kind to a young preacher. Jackets for Jesus, our work with the homeless in Los Angeles had just begun. He gave me one of his personal flight jackets to give to a homeless man - Col. Jim Irwin, beautifully stitched in - I handed it out one brutally cold night to a man who cared more about the warmth than the story behind it. I'll never forget watching that jacket walk away- keeping a man, earthbound by poverty, warm, from the back of a man who'd looked down on the earth from the surface of the moon. Jim said the entire earth; billions of people, each with their own stories, hid neatly behind his raised thumb... it amazes me still.

One voice united a generation, one act of kindness kept a man warm, one life- well lived -leaves an imprint on eternity. It's our voice, it's our choice, it's our legacy... so many are waiting for direction. We can change the world, one day at a time.

blessings,

Eric