What Have You Done For Me Lately?

There is an episode of Netflix’s series The Crown in which the British Royals follow the 1969 Apollo 11 mission. They are portrayed as monitoring the events rapturously, united in a kind of collective awe with virtually the entire world.

At the moment of the landing, I was at a professional baseball game, which was interrupted by the announcement to great applause. That night, huddled with family in front of the television, I watched Neil Armstrong walk upon the moon.

Fifty years later, it requires dramatic skill to recreate the intense feeling of that time, a feeling evoked by an achievement so extraordinary it moved almost everyone. But an identical mission today would be unlikely to cause that same reaction. This fact reveals an aspect of productiveness that is easily taken for granted—namely, it is progressive. What was once unimaginable can soon become commonplace. “Been there, done that,” as we say.

Which is part and parcel of advancement. But it can also become a danger, should we forget how that advancement happened in the first place and what’s required to keep it going. History, after all, cautions frequently with examples of decline.

So while we can legitimately ask the most productive people among us, What have you done for me lately? it is also important for them to ask the same of us.