Magnificent Desolation
an excerpt

Thus is the plight of man, doomed to the mundane and cliché, forever building ladders of a cardboard boxes and ceramic plant pots to the moon, only to find it's all been done before. In cyclical attempts we throw our rage at ladders, building again out of a stronger iron, to find we've been there so many times before. Buzz Aldrin is, perhaps, the best example of mankind one can cite, a magnificent example of redundant discovery. "Beautiful. Beautiful. Magnificent desolation." That's what he said, you know, upon finally making it there. Not nearly as well known as Armstrong's," One small step for [a] man, and one giant leap for mankind," of course, but I think it displays a greater understanding of the consequences of the auspicious occasion. He brought mankind with him, too, in all of its ugliness and bigotry, insisting on receiving holy communion whilst on the rock. He never told anyone of his religious activities while up there, not even his wife until many years later. Man's rebellious streak reaching another world. It was unacceptable, the rape of a spiritually virginal world, its first time kept secret for so long, dirty molestation on its dark side where no one could see. It's never recovered. I can see it. It weeps when it thinks no one is watching, but sometimes, just sometimes, when it's shown naked in a Sun dominated sky, its tears flow, only to reapply its smiling face by its own dim glow of night. If anyone should ever ask me to give one example of man in all of his complexities and perversions and magnificence, I will surely quote good ol' Buzz, telling them, "Beautiful. Beautiful. Magnificent desolation." This man, a simple religious American, a good old boy, was able to sum up the human race in four words. I suppose space and its infinity inspires such insight and depth. Earth does not, unfortunately. Upon returning, Buzz has gone public and then private in regard to some UFO business. I don't believe a bit of it. We all want to see a UFO far too much for any of these supposed sightings to hold an validity in my redundant opinion. We are a needy and lonely race as a whole. He has done cameos in movies and admitted to plastic surgery, as well. Buzz exemplifies this mortal coil so very well, the cell by which all other cells can be measured. The eternal symbol of the silver medal-- excellent, extraordinary, in fact, but not quite there, we're afraid.