When studying the history of the great discoveries, there is no one who does not revere the spirit of adventure and courage of the first navigators.

The Phoenicians, in fragile vessels, always moved forwarded towards the horizon, looking for what was beyond. And so they discovered new lands.

On July 20, 1999, when the 30^th anniversary of man´s arrival on the moon was commemorated, we remember with emotion the detachment of those astronauts who were willing to take such a risky journey.

Especially after the revelations, hitherto unpublished, that Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, the first men to set foot on the lunar soil, left Earth knowing that there was a great risk of never returning.

They were ready to die on the moon, if anything went wrong. They knew that their companion Michael Collins, the astronaut who stayed on Apollo 11, would return to Earth alone if the lunar module failed to take off from the moon.

Armstrong and Aldrin would still have thirty-six hours of oxygen supply. Afterwards, it would only be awaiting death.

The chances of this happening were so great that the American government had everything ready. The funeral rite, the way the wives of the astronauts would be told, the speech of the president Richard Nixon, communicating the tragedy to the world.

As Collins put it in an interview twenty years later: We left there knowing that failures could happen and we could be both heroes or martyrs.

What happens is that great men, in exposing their own lives for the benefit of Humanity, are not thinking of being heroes or martyrs.

Their goal is to achieve victory. What will come after is a natural consequence.

And it is for this reason that, every day, human beings give themselves in totality to other human beings.

Doctors lean over cadavers for the detailed study of physical organization, as well as over test tubes and a host of other devices, in an attempt to discover new vaccines and medicines.

Their aim is to achieve the cure or, at least, the temporary relief of the pains that torment men. Maybe come up with a way to stop the advancing disease, destroying precious cells and organs in the human body.

Their life is one of dedication. And their names appear once or twice. Certainly, the ones who achieve success and have their discoveries shown to the world.

The others remain anonymous. But that does not stop their researches.

What matters to them is achieving their goal. Just like a climber, they aim to reach the top of the challenging mountain so that they can say, victorious: I made it.

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If discouragement and tiredness are surrounding us, let us think of the great discoverers. Let us remember the inventors, their patience, persistence and the constancy in research.

Let us remember the courage of the first navigators, facing the unknown oceans. Let us bear in mind the ones who risked their lives for the achievements of Humanity.

As much as those who study, work, think and plan a thousand ways for Humanity every day to live more comfortable, calmer, more serene.

And while we are, intimately, thanking them for all the advances already made, let us follow their example.

Let us never let ourselves stop halfway because the great joy is precisely to reach the outlined goals.

Spiritist Moment Team from the article Prontos
para morrer, from Veja magazine, in July 21, 1999.
August 25.2021.