In the White House of the 1990s, Bill Clinton kept on his Oval Office coffee table, between the two facing couches, a sample Moon rock brought back to Earth from a quarter-million miles away by Apollo astronauts. He told me that any time an argument was about to break out between geopolitical adversaries or recalcitrant members of Congress, he would point to the rock and remind people it came from the Moon.8 This gesture often recalibrated the conversation, serving as a reminder that cosmic perspectives can force you to take pause and reflect on the meaning of life, and on the value of peace
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