I’ll turn 72 years of age in August. As I’ve mentioned before, I was born in the sweet spot, at a time and a place where I was able to live a fairly prosperous, comfortable and interesting life during a period in history unlike any other, and which we may never see the like of again.

Tonight, I watched a two hour TV special on the Voyager missions, the first time (and maybe the last!) that we sent spacecraft to explore the outer solar system and beyond, into interstellar space. In 2012, one of the Voyagers reported that it had crossed the heliopause, the boundary of the sun’s magnetic field and the interstellar medium. Voyager II is now in an independent orbit around the galactic center.

This happened in my lifetime, and I had the resources to actually watch it happen (on TV) in real time. And most important, I had the education and temperament to fully understand both the event and its significance. We saw men land on the moon 50 years ago, but we also explored the solar system and crossed into interstellar space–all in my lifetime. I can’t think of any other moment in history I would have rather lived in.

Yeah, I hit the sweet spot all right.