“When I was in grade school, a number of movies were made about great square-rigged whaling vessels. I always felt at that age in my life that I had been born at the wrong time, that I should have been born back in the days of the whaling vessels; but since I have grown a bit older, and hopefully a little wiser, I have decided that this is the time in the world’s history that I am most grateful for being alive, not only for having the opportunity of participating in one of the most exciting adventures I think mankind has attempted, but also the opportunity of being born at a time when the Gospel is here upon the earth, and going to the particular home to which I was assigned. …
“I wasn’t in the Sacred Grove with Joseph Smith, but I have just s strong a conviction of the fact that he saw God and talked with him face to face as I have the conviction of something I got my doctoral dissertation on, the existence of pi-mesons. I haven’t seen pi-mesons either, but I accept their existence on secondary evidence. And on secondary evidence I believe that Joseph Smith saw God in the Sacred Grove; and that is a great strength in my life.”
– Don L. Lind, LDS astronaut, 1967
I remember hearing him speak when I was 12 or 13, at a Scout/LDS camp event. I don’t remember much of what he said, except for clear disappointment talking about the cancelled Apollo missions: “I wasn’t going to get to go to the Moon!” It’s become sort of a mental codephrase for me, for the feeling of being legitimately sad at a lost opportunity while knowing that even having the opportunity was a privilege.
At any rate, I looked him up after seeing this, and thoroughly enjoyed finding his conference talk from 1985. I’m usually inclined to be impatient with talks that begin with an extended account of a journey, but I’ll make an exception when the journey is into space! (All in all, I’d say he was born at exactly the right time.)
Several years ago, my parents went to the rebuilt Nauvoo temple. One of the workers who greeted them had a name tag that read Don Lind.
My dad said, “There was an astronaut named Don Lind.”
The brother smiled and said, “Yes, and I’m what’s left of him.”
One of my childhood heroes. I hadn’t thought of him in a while. Thank you!