On Christmas Eve 1968, NASA astronaut Bill Anders took the now-famous Earthrise photograph while aboard Apollo 8. Additionally, there was the famous Christmas Eve broadcast from the astronauts.

I was born in the summer of 1968 and it was a tumultuous year. A war raged across the Pacific and on American television sets. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. The St. Louis Cardinals did not win the World Series. Bobby Kennedy was killed.

However, some amazing things happened too. 2001: A Space Odyssey premiered. Led Zeppelin made their American debut. The Civil Rights Act was signed into law. And at the close of the year, astronauts on a roundtrip flight to the Moon took one of mankind’s greatest photos and said some words to a wounded nation.

2018 isn’t 1968. As much as I’d like to find the “not normal” of today reflected in the past, it really isn’t there. What does remain is the blue marble of a planet hanging there in space. Our home. Our only home.

On this day, it’s good to be reminded of home.