The First Man on the Moon

"I can honestly say — and it's a big surprise to me — that I have never had a dream about being on the moon," Neil Armstrong told the audience as he announced the top 20 engineering achievements of the 20th century in February 2000.

This same man was heard by 600 million people on July 20, 1969 and as he announced, “That’s one step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” as he made the first walk on lunar grounds.

On August 25, 2012, at 82 Armstrong died following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures. If there is one word to describe Armstrong, it would be “modest”.

In a world where non-achievers or underachievers become celebrities for exposing their dirty linen and surgically-enhanced bodies, Armstrong shunned celebrity status. After the historic moonwalk, Armstrong left a lucrative job as deputy associate administrator for aeronautics at NASA in 1971, to teach aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati until 1979. From thereon, he became a farmer tending cattle and corn, away from the limelight. He would agree to do interviews, but these would be rare and far in between.

By today’s ‘connect’ generation standard when popularity is measured by hits and likes, Armstrong is an oddball – but then he is looked upon with awe. The first American to orbit space, John Glenn, who became a US Senator, once said, "To this day, he's the one person on Earth, I'm truly, truly envious of."

St Albert the Recluse from 1115 until his death in 1140 at the age of 80, built himself a cell in the midst of a barren wilderness, fasting and praying. He did not promote himself, yet people went to him for spiritual advice, and two popes authorized him to say mass in the chapel in his cell. St Albert was an oddball, yet Christians continue to look at him with awe because of his modesty, of his sacrifices, of his blessedness. “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.” (1 John 2:16)

There are now calls for a state funeral for Armstrong the last non-president to get such honour was General Douglas McArthur. His family resists the idea in keeping with modesty that Armstrong practiced during his lifetime.

Though he stands as a giant among men for his feat, the former test pilot was well grounded. He knew his mortality, he accepted his humanity. He described his out-of-this world experience in this manner: “It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.”

As you look out to the moon tonight, say a prayer to Neil Armstrong, a man who lived his life to the fullest, sans the glaring lights from the paparazzi. Neil Armstrong was a bright star among the constellation of people in our darkened world