Neil Armstrong

Aug 26, 2012 16:11

I don't watch much television, and I made a decision to keep my work computer off this weekend, so I get the feeling I'm probably among the last to learn of the passing of Neil Armstrong, whose first steps on the moon made all of us back home on this mudball stand up a little straighter as a species.

Over on his Facebook page, Garry Kasparov notes with disappointment that "nobody who has walked on the moon was born after the year 1935. What a shame for global civilization!" I can only share that disappointment.

Kasparov went on to note "'Curiosity' on Mars is great, but 20 years late. Imagine where we could be by now! What could have been a new generation of Gagarins and Armstrongs instead made Angry Birds..." It's sad, but a true observation.

"Will we ever go back?" is a perennial question. It was asked at the end of the movie Apollo 13, and the question pops up on my radar from time to time, particularly when I'm spending time with my grandkids.

I shall probably think often of Armstrong in the days to come, and when I do, it won't be to mourn his passing, but to give thanks that he lived.

Cheers...
Up