This Olive Branch Made Of Gold Has Great Value

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[* Gold replica of olive branch that Neil Armstrong placed in a bag and left it behind on the Moon during his trip there.]

This Olive Branch Lies On The Surface Of The Moon
Man's quest for exploration knows no bounds. Deploying whatever tools and devices the contemporary technology makes available, man has always sought to stretch his (her) stamina and perseverance to its limits, in order to explore and learn more about new lands, new places, and new cultures. (And look for opportunities to commercially exploit them, of course.) Having exhausted all avenues of exploration on earth, having concluded that earth is finite and round and there are just so many masses of land dotting the watery planet and, uh, only so many things to discover, man turned his (her) attention to the next available object to explore - the Moon.



And so there he was. Took the rocket 11 minutes to take the explorers to an orbit outside the earth's atmosphere. And then it zoomed ahead for a non-stop, no-stations-on-the-way-please, no-getting-down-to-stretch-your-legs travel of close to 385,000 kilometers that took a good four days to reach the moon. The longest we ever traveled in one stretch and the farthest we have ever been from home.



After fussing over the nitty-gritty of landing, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin finally set foot on the slippery sand of the dry and desolate desert of the Moon at 2:56am UTC on July 21, 1969. That was exactly 39 years ago, and coincidentally, it was a Monday. (What was I doing at that time? I was howling while being literally dragged away from home to the pre-kindergarten school by a callous, heartless mother... Sheesh! Wish I hadn't been so self-absorbed, but done something more profound to mark the occasion...)

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[* Footage captured by NASA - 1969 trip to the Moon by the Apollo 11 team.]
We become emotional at such times. Even the most enlightened and the highly-evolved amongst us. So we brought with us trinkets and mushy mementos and souvenirs to give away to any of the moon inhabitants, just in case they happened to stroll by. And we planted one nice plaque with the words to the effect that we came in peace. With our signatures to boot. It didn't matter if people there wouldn't understand the language, it didn't matter that people there wouldn't understand what it all meant, it didn't matter that our gesture would make a difference to the cosmos, but the solemnity of the moment made the gesture of the plaque appear appropriate. And we planted the flag. Even on the Moon, oh how could we forget the flag? How could we forget our nationality? So we brought our nationality with us and planted it on the soil of the Moon. It would not concern the moon's inhabitants which particular strip of land we had come from. Will take us a while, may be an encounter with non-Earth beings, may be a battle or two with them, to finally come up with one single, "Earth Flag". But a particular-country flag will do for now.



We also left an olive branch made of gold on the moon before returning. Wouldn't be a surprise if somebody goes searching for it and pick it up the next time they go there. The prices of gold touching the levels that they are doing these days; the money will come in handy. Going by the immense vintage and historical value of the piece, who knows? The sky is the limit at the Sotheby's.

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[* Sotheby's World MasterCard. Tailored for people who earn over USD 250,000 p.a., and with USD 2 million in investible assets on their balance sheet.]

No doubt the citizens of Moon must have remained hidden behind their boulders and crevices, silently watching with amusement, the antics of us human beings as we went about our motions. The two-and-a-half hours that we actually spent walking on the moon, collecting this soil sample and conducting that experiment, were worth it. The moment marked one more milestone in the history of mankind, and proved - if ever proof was needed - yet again what the human brain can achieve when it is driven by an indomitable desire to explore the unknown. It was the same spirit that motivated man to build a structure that could float on water and could carry entire armies to new lands on Earth. It was the same ambition that helped man overcome the body's limitation to soar in the skies. It was the same will that pushed man to the highest peaks and plumbed him to the lowest depths. The ever-curious, the ever-inquisitive, mankind.



In another three days the rocket carrying the precious human cargo splashed into the sea. Been thirty-nine long years since that first trip. Only a dozen men have been fortunate enough to have actually walked on the moon - actually any astronomical body other than planet Earth for that matter - till date. It has been a long time since this handful went there and returned. Wonder when the next set of human beings will again touch base with the Moon? And, oh, don't forget the olive branch made of gold. It is lying in a bag somewhere in the "Sea of Tranquility" area. Ain't no use to anybody out there. Their standards are uh, different. And with the prices of gold touching the levels they are doing nowadays... the money will come in handy.