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专题推荐：词解十七大
When the moon hits your eye
Like a big-a pizza pie
That's amore
It seems appropriate that the legendary Dean Martin should have sung this way back in 1963. This was a time of hope and promise in the US collective mind set. A year earlier the beloved JFK gave a speech at Rice University in Houston detailing his dreams for moon travel.
"We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained...
The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds... vast stretches of the unknown and the unanswered and the unfinished still far outstrip our collective comprehension."
China's first lunar orbiter, Chang'e I, blasts off from its launch pad in the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, at about 6:05 pm October 24, 2007. (Xinhua)
To see China this week aiming for the stars gets my heart beating. Fascinated by space travel I for one grew up wanting to be a space cadet. As a kid I read about Yuri Gagarin, Neal Armstrong – the bananas the sputnik monkey ate - you name it- these folks were my heroes!
Some of the earliest things I read were science-based picture books called the ‘How and Why Wonder Book' series. My favorite was the issue on the moon and my first presentation to the class in primary school was a long-winded 5-minute speech that had the whole class sleeping. I must have been about seven but I had stars in my eyes.
Every morning for breakfast growing up in suburban Australia I would eat weetbix. This was a bowl of biscuits that you poured milk and sugar over. In an attempt to get kids addicted the manufacturer would include collector cards at the bottom of the pack and I remember being delighted when they choose a space theme one season.
If you ask my mother she'll tell you that I had a large poster of all these space cards stuck to my wall and when my eldest brother got a telescope - it seemed like the heavens were coming down to greet me.
This joyful intrigue was part of my childhood and seeing the Chinese having named their space orbiter Cheng'e 1 after a legendary fairy that flew to the moon, makes me feel almost - well - grateful. My good friend Wendy (who went on to study law) loved fairies and if I may say - this joyful imagination binds cultures at the best of times.
Seriously, look deeper. Today Westerners love the concepts of yin and yang, with the former symbolizing lunar energies, water, darkness and all things female. This has also coincided with a greater interest in traditional Chinese medicines and practices like taichi and fengshui.
For indigenous peoples across the globe the moon and its cycles have represented powers and energies that have commanded respect since time immemorial. One can find the symbolism within Muslim cultures, atop every mosque is a crescent and on many an Islamic national flag one finds the moon.
Today tourist centers like India's Goa and Thailand's Ko Phang Nhang make millions of dollars every year from regular full moon parties attracting thousands of western partygoers. And where people's passions lie- money usually follows.
Let's get back to JFK, who only 16,469 days ago spoke:
"the space effort itself, while still in its infancy, has already created a great number of new companies, and tens of thousands of new jobs. Space and related industries are generating new demands in investment and skilled personnel, and this city and this state, and this region, will share greatly in this growth"
In many ways this could have been one of China's leaders speaking this week to the many hundred's of star gazers who came out to watch the historic launch.
Same theme, same dream, different team - that's all.
And thankfully this void of space is becoming more inclusive and united than ever before. For years now we have seen joint national efforts in space. Now we are also seeing the Japanese, the Indians and the South Koreans wanting to explore. And that's something I believe is worth singing about.
That's amore.
Listen to Dean Martin at
http://solosong.net/dino/amore/amore.html
Hear JFK's speech at Rice Uni at
http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/jfk-space.htm
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amore – in Italian means passion
collective mind set – this refers to the popular ideas of the day shared by most people
space-cadet – an astronaut, cosmonaut, taikonaut etc- another word for a space traveler; often in slang usage it refers to someone who has their head in the clouds and is a bit of a dreamer; offensively it can be used to refer to drug users or someone who just doesn’t have their feet on the ground.
long-winded – verbose; using lots of words to say little.
void - empty, emptiness, e.g. there is a void between your ears
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