The rush to summarise

I was nearly 5 years old when Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon, and therefore my memories of it are more folk than real.  It is in the intervening years that his story has left an impression on me, like his boot leaving that clear indentation in the fine dust on the lunar surface. I could watch that shaky footage of the lunar landing and his descent down the ladder of the lunar ladder again and again without getting bored. I find it inspiring, courageous and captivating.  I will doubtless get many opportunities to do so again today.

There is a word of caution here, though. When Aldrin and Armstrong separated from the command module and began their descent to the surface in the lunar module, Armstrong’s mind was awash with the ‘script’ which others had tried to write for him. Suggestions had flooded in from near and far – from religious fanatics, poets, pundits and colleagues, about what his first words should be on the surface of another planet. In the end he ignored them all, and went with the simple poetry of a phrase which captured an epoch. Other quotes showed that there was more than a little poetry in the man:’I think we’re going to the moon because it’s in the nature of the human being to face challenges,it’s by the nature of his deep inner soul … We’re required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream.’

The thing is, when it really mattered, Armstrong wrote his own script. The whole thing would have been spoilt if others did it for him. It is only shortly after 7am here in the UK, and the web is awash with commentaries on his life already. Maybe in death we should allow his words to speak louder than ours?

Come to think of it, that might be a good rule of thumb when memorializing many public figures.

Image : NASA