Neil...

[Wildor]

(Derogating on my promise not to come back for a year. Simply put, this post wants to come out.)

Armstrong is gone. That saddens me a great deal. For a six year old kid back in 1969, that man represented the best of humanity to me. That he himself always shied away from the role of hero didn't lessen that in subsequent years. Rather, it pointed towards something else. Something that needs to be brought back to light these days.

No one who wasn't alive in the fifties and sixties can truly understand the feeling of optimism, of confidence and of faith in ourselves that was around then and lingered to the early seventies. I caught the tail end of it. I saw it. I felt it.

Of course, it didn't exist by itself. Mixed and intertwined were apprehension, doubt, at times despair, at times downright fear. Mainly caused by the ongoing cold war but I personally don't believe any epoch of human history
is devoid of those feelings. But what is not always present is this feeling of hope, of optimism, of knowing, just knowing that we can do miracles. We... Us humans...

It was present back then. For the simple reason that we did perform miracles. Indeed, we awed ourselves! Starting with the splitting of the atom (Don't bother... I know all of the for and against in this matter. That is beside the point I'm trying to make here), we proved to ourselves that there is nothing humanity can't achieve.

As Armstrong and numerous others have said, going to the moon wasn't such a miracle in itself. We just decided to go.

We just decided to go.

Do you see what I'm trying to tell you? Neil's death provides me with an opportunity to say this to you. To tell you, with Faulkner, that humanity will not only endure. It will prevail.

It has been one of the saddest things in my life to see that feeling, that faith in ourselves largely disappear from the landscape. I don't know why, but it seems to me us humans can't sustain it for very long. It had happened before. The kind of 'revolution fever' that gripped the western world at the end of the 18th century had it's roots in such a faith. That we can do it. That we can take our destiny in our own hands. And that of all human virtues, our courage stands highest. And again, I know very well the consequences aren't always what we intend. Indeed, that is probably the main reason we can't sustain that faith.

But I would SO MUCH LOVE to see this again in my lifetime. As I have written in here somewhere before, there is no greater tragedy in the universe that to see hope die. And this world of today often has very little hope to offer, especially to the young. And that is so god-damned wrong...

Yeah... Maybe this is only the old frenchman waxing nostalgic about the 'old days'. Maybe...

But I don't think so. I say to you that with everything wrong about us, everything bad and evil with us, we are a wonder of the universe.

Optimism will return. Faith in ourselves will return. Someday. Only, when it finally does, I hope it stays.

I hope it stays...

[Thalric]

this is a bit too philophisacol (however its spelled) for my tastes.

[King Alboin]

We did decide to go, so we went, but then lost our compass of purpose and left the sextant of why we went in the museum of been there done that.

I remember watching that first step onto another world. Everything about that was so amazing to behold, at the time. As you remember, Wildor, there were a whole lot of activities that took place "back stage" to bring Neil's words to our ears.

I was so exited, sitting there on the floor, like two feet away from this small black and white television set, at my Grandaddy's house. Eight years old and already born into the space age. You are correct, hope sprung eternal then. Mankind could seem to do the impossible, only by just deciding to do it. But what happened to the awe of it all, where did the hope go? Why did that magical optimism just go poof?

I think hope is still here, just burdened with the frailty of what the nature of man is.

Theognis of Megara [6th centry B.C.E.] wrote:

Hope is the only good god remaining among mankind;
the others have left and gone to Olympus.
Trust, a mighty god has gone, Restraint has gone from men,
and the Graces, my friend, have abandoned the earth.
Men’s judicial oaths are no longer to be trusted, nor does anyone
revere the immortal gods; the race of pious men has perished and
men no longer recognize the rules of conduct or acts of piety.

Even way back then, when something cool and amazing happened like, Idk, Jason the Argonaut finding the golden fleese, after many trials and errors, just became the norm. Someone did it, the herd of man got the credit and the "how could it of happened" got buried in all the after-hype and self back slapping.

I think though, Wildor, hope still remains. The piety that Neil showed, being a man of reserve, giving that bold example to follow, can we as man find that first step back to the magical optimism, you, I and perhaps Rodri, remember.

[eric0095]

The Mars Rover Curiosity landed just a few weeks ago.

Niel's passing is kind of a symbolic end to the Moon era of our space travel efforts. Shortly before leaving Earth again, he got to see another chapter begin in the next era; Mars. Rather fitting in my opinion.

[CaesarXVI]

R.I.P Neil Armstrong. And btw, the thread started to be with Neil's death, but it ended with that we had our destiny in our hands. What??? Lol

[Rodri]

We had the day off school for the Moon Landing because it was in the middle of the day here and Australian radio telescopes were actively involved in recieving and relaying signals from Apollo XI and the Eagle. My interests in space travel and science fiction probably started at about the same time, but only after I had read Ray Bradbury's "R is for Rocket", a collection of short stories on space travel. (I can't remember which came first any more.)

Wildor, my old friend, take heart. This 'world' will end soon and when it does mankind can focus on repairing the World (including human minds) and when that is done we will travel to the stars.

But first, this toxic old world is due for a massive cleansing and that will be rough and that will be frightening but it must happen and all we can do, as decent human beings is call for peace for all people and keep our hearts open for love. (or should I say l'amour? )
The first person we have to learn to love is ourself. As individuals, we beat ourselves up worse than anyone else ever could and the toxic world just reinforces that self-loathing. That must end. We are amazing! We can create anything we imagine! We are human.

R.I.P. Mr Neil Armstrong, the self-described engineering nerd who walked upon a tranquil sea.