I went outside after sunset to look at Comet Hale-Bopp. It's really splendid. Even to the unassisted eye, it has a bridal veil of a trail behind it. I take great pleasure in thinking about space travel, and the majestic beauty of the planets around me. I wish I had a scientific turn of mind; if I had, I would like to have studied planets. As it is, even my most concerted attempts to understand how things work leaves me baffled and frustrated. With great effort, I can get there, but my forte is appreciation rather than solid knowledge. And so I stood outside in my front yard, smiling to see a real comet blazing through the starry firmament overhead.
I truly marvel at the genius of people who can look at something so alien and speculate their way to a comprehension of the object. To extrapolate from the known to the unknown is a great gift. I think the fact that humans flew to the moon in a rocket is a genuine miracle. I don't need for a god to exist if we are capable of that. My religious fervor is reserved for the never-ending and astonishing miracles of humanity. To fly in a jet to California is a thing of beauty, despite the grim food and tiny seats. I've never lost my sense of wonder about it in all these years of traveling. All that I need to renew it is to look outside and see the Nile, or Crete, or the Panama Canal looking just like the pictures in the maps to feel awed.
My other favorite technological wonder is the telephone, but computers are right up there. Without them, how could I share my joy in The Future with all of you? I'd have to go back to reading science fiction, instead of living it.