It goes without saying, but we constantly need to be reminded that we live in an amazing world, yet often we fail to recognize or appreciate this reality. Those of us who are middle-aged or more can remember the wonder that captured the American people in the 1960s when President John F. Kennedy made a pledge to place an American on the moon before the end of the decade. When the Soviet Union sent the first satellite, Sputnik, into space in 1957, Americans were inspired to respond. We were so captivated by the space program that when Alan Shepherd, John Glenn, and the many other brave Americans were launched into space we were glued to our television sets to watch the whole event. In the summer of 1969, when Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the surface of the moon, we wer…