as above, so below

Happy International Moon Day, folks! Look up to the skies and catch these nightly spectacular stellar extravaganzas. Brought to us by the Earth's guardian celestial orb - the moon, our lunar sentinel. 

wonder | wander | women are eternal moon maids and Luna devotees. 

International Moon Day marks the anniversary of the first landing by humans on the Moon as part of the Apollo 11 lunar mission in 1969. 

fact & fantasy for the survival of the human race

The UN General Assembly declared International Moon Day, a United Nations-designated international day to be observed annually on 20 July, in its resolution 76/76 on “International cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space” in 2021.

The celebrations will also consider the achievements of all States in the exploration of the Moon and raise public awareness of sustainable Moon exploration and utilization. 

 to survive and evolve, the world must shift from prioritizing
“economy → society → planet” to “planet → society → economy”

Looking down from the ISS, Garan described witnessing “paparazzi‑like flashes of lightning storms,” “dancing curtains of auroras,” and most hauntingly, the “unbelievable thinness of our planet’s atmosphere.” ~ Astronaut Ron Garan. 

He knew in that moment: that fragile layer is all that protects life - and yet our systems treat the planet as “a wholly owned subsidiary of the global economy.” 

"suspended in a sunbeam" ~ Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot

Unfortunately, “international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space,” has been appropriated by governments and private conglomerates mining it for their benefit - with little oversight and less accountability to we the people and future generations. 

Since the space race was born, space junk has been left to trash the cosmos and crash into earth at risk and peril to all but the folks who put them there. 

The astronaut perspective or the overview effect is the phenomenon one experiences upon seeing the Earth from space. 

size comparison of the main moons of the Solar System with Earth to scale

If we sent our politicians and world leaders into space - maybe some of them would abandon their greedy grabbing commodifying. If they are able to open their eyes and hearts to the truth of our place in creation - then maybe we can hope for humanity's survival.

In the book, Sagan's wife, Ann Druyan, challenges readers to pick one of the other planetary dots photographed and featured in the book - imagine that there are inhabitants on that world who believe that the universe was created solely for themselves, humans are not as important as we think we are.

"There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the Pale Blue Dot - the only home we've ever known." ~ Carl Sagan.