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When I was growing up, a child through the 70's, I had some vague recollection of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. I believe when I was very young- maybe age 3, my parents took me to see it at a drive-in. When we lived in South Carolina, I remember being at home in the afternoon, and it was on tv. I must have been in pre-school or Kindergarten.

During this time, I vividly recalled the 2001 segments on Electric Company and Sesame Street. The Thus Spake Zarathustra music is just memorable and awe-filling. The cartoons might not be scary to an adult; but I remember these little skits evoked a sense of awe, wonder, fear, and the mysterious. I really can't tell you if they taught me what they were trying to teach. I just remember: 1. The pounding music 2. the crumbling monolith 3. Astronauts trembling in awe and terror.

By high school, 2001 was the ultimate sci-fi movie for me. It's perfect, in every way, including and especially the sparse dialogue and austere boredom of space travel....and of course the religious wonderment of the meaning of life, the secret to life, where we came from, where we're going, is there life out there, is there God? The image of the monolith is the perfect alien- a black impenetrable slab, a total enigma; and the Star Child at the end evokes that sense of wonder of new life in the womb...