Shower thought

The chain of near-miraculous events that would need to occur in perfect order to generate a sentient being from basic elements qualifies as a miracle. Such a miracle, in fact, that other sentient beings in the universe would (as postulated by Vonnegut) be extremely interested in preserving some of us forever as curiosities or as objects to be scientifically examined.

While we may not be much compared to other intelligent life in the universe, our civilization landed a dozen men on the moon, and returned them safely to earth. Those 12 were the elite of the greatest generation of humans we will ever produce. We will never again send humans out beyond low-Earth orbit, at least not with the expectation that they will return safely to Earth. Those precious hours men spent on the moon were the high-water mark of our 7000-year attempt at civilization:
July 20, 1969—Apollo 11
Neil Armstrong
Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin
Nov. 19, 1969—Apollo 12
Charles (Pete) Conrad
Alan Bean
Feb. 5, 1971—Apollo 14
Alan Shepard
Edgar Mitchell
July 30, 1971—Apollo 15
James Irwin
David Scott
Apr. 21-23, 1972—Apollo 16
Charles Duke
John Young
Dec. 11-13, 1972—Apollo 17
Eugene Cernan
Harrison Schmitt

The universe will eventually shake, burn, freeze, and scrape the human infestation off the surface of this obscure planet, but out in the frozen reaches of deep space our tiny monument will sail: small steps in the moondust that amounted to one "Giant Leap."