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In Memoriam
A Human Prince
Neil Armstrong, RIP
Amongst the billions of Homo sapiens scattered across this mysterious planet of ours, there are but a few human princes.
No, not the royal sort whose thin veneer of worth and dignity is inversely proportional to their lofty, worshipped position and, even more so, their banal existence.
I’ve met three. The Queen of England, Princess Anne, and the Duchess of Wales. That would have been Camilla, back in 1993, in Kenya on an escapist private safari right during the outing of her affair with Prince Charles and his infamous tawdry musings during a cell phone conversation. Metaphoric thinking, too, is yet another royal limitation.
They don’t impress. More said isn’t worth the keystrokes.
This past week juxtaposed the royal and the human prince. The gob-smacking shenanigans of Prince Harry and the very sad passing of Neil Armstrong.
I had the fortune of knowing Neil Armstrong. My husband spent a lot more time with him than I. But our experiences weave the same golden thread in a tapestry of what Ernest Hemingway called the best people: the feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice.
But Neil Armstrong possessed more. He walked the path of modesty with the clarity of a full moon rising. At lunch one day at the home of a mutual friend, I asked him if he had a little piece of moon rock in his home. With a kindly physiognomy that was prelude to a revealing reply, he softly said: “I don’t. The moon rocks belong to the people of this country.”
I wanted to crawl under the table in embarrassment for having even wondered how surreal it must be to have a piece of the universe.
The shocking moment came one day when he asked my husband to take him flying in an Aviat Husky. Why on earth did he need my husband to fly the plane?! A former test pilot, aerospace engineer, and, need I say, first man to land on the moon and with a computer that had, as he put it that day, eight times less memory than an IBM home computer released in 1981? Twelve years after Apollo 11’s lunar landing!
Yes. And only because he wasn’t checked out in that sort of plane and with deference to the FAA (which was nowhere in sight) and respect for the plane’s owner. For all you non-flyers out there: Could he have flown it legally and flawlessly without my husband at the helm?
Absolutely.
That was Neil Armstrong. Quiet, unassuming, respectful of others, “only doing his job.”
If music is the “universal” language that sparks communal emotions and rejoicing (and it is), then the Czech composer Antonin Dvorak’s beautiful “Song to the Moon” speaks volumes about Armstrong. Listen to it here, sung by the beautiful Renee Fleming, and see if it doesn’t give you those universal goose-bumps and emotion-laden thoughts of an earth-bound soul whose actions reflect the heavens.
Based on a Czech fairy tale which ends with Rusalka thanking the Prince for letting her experience human love and commends his soul to God.
If Dvorak were alive today, no doubt his “song to the moon” for Neil would thank this unique human being for that and more. For flying us to the moon with class, grace, dignity, honesty and, most importantly, humility unknown to princes.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (29) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Marilia Duffles
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http://spectator.org/archives/2012/08/28/a-human-prince
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Stephie| 8.28.12 @ 6:33AM
What a lovely piece Marilia. Thank you for this. Does everyone remember where they were when Neil stepped on to the moon? I can see my life then as clearly as today, and how I felt watching this feat of American exceptionalism.
Did anyone else notice that flags at govt. buildings were not flown at half staff yesterday? The drug addled Whitney Houston garnered several days of our nations flag at half staff for killing herself, but not this man. But then what would one expect from the Kenyan and his ilk.
c. j. acworth| 8.28.12 @ 8:30AM
Wait a minute, wasn't Obama the first man on the moon? Right after he shot bin Laden?
Alan Obama Fan Brooks | 8.28.12 @ 9:30AM
The author doesn't know how right she is, she admits there are few akin to Armstrong-- so that means there are few like him in America, which means America isn't so great after all because most are not princes in America. So our institutions are special yet we are not. The Framers were great but not us.
Alan Obama Fan Brooks | 8.28.12 @ 10:06AM
...Duffles writes:
"Amongst the billions of Homo sapiens scattered across this mysterious planet of ours, there are but a few human princes."
Not too good a percentage, huh?
Skippy| 8.28.12 @ 1:18PM
You are not among them.
You are hardly human at all.
Reptiles have no rights.
Any last request?
Alan Obama Fan Brooks | 8.28.12 @ 3:31PM
We are blood relatives, aren't we?
JFGalt| 8.28.12 @ 12:51PM
OBAMA! is limiting it to being flown half mast only for the day of his burial. That was the least he could get away with since Neil Armstrong was not a muslim.
btims86| 8.28.12 @ 7:30AM
RIP Neil, you were my boyhood hero.
We don't really have a space program today because we have government involved in every other aspect of life, right down to being told what to eat and drink. Plus the nonsese of "globalism" has infiltrated everyone's thought and we mustn't do anything as a "country" anymore, one nation can't do more than another, one person shouldn't have more accomplishments than another......it's all soft, socialist thinking. Lowest common denominator.
TLP| 8.28.12 @ 8:42AM
It's too bad that he lived long enough to see The Greatest Space Program on the face of the Planet, and the Single Greatest Example of American Know-how, Courage, and Ingenuity, turned in to a Muslim Outreach Program, while our Astronauts wait for the Russians to Sober Up, so they can Hitch a Ride with these Drunks, up in to Space.
This ALONE, is reason enough to get rid of this MUSLIM PIECE OF GARBAGE.
He has turned NASA in to a Muslim Outreach Program.
Don't tell me that this MFer isn't a Muslim.
HE IS!
Mimi | 8.28.12 @ 9:10AM
Can you just imagine how he felt when Obama did his damage to our SPACE program ! After all that work, progress, pride in accomplishment...he lived to witness this!
We have to defeat this 2008 "BAD DECISION" .
Alan Obama Fan Brooks | 8.28.12 @ 9:31AM
No, the cost of pace-fuel is too high.
Alan Obama Fan Brooks | 8.28.12 @ 9:32AM
...space fuel: to put a pound of something in orbit is ASTRONOMICAL because of the fuel cost.
Skippy| 8.28.12 @ 1:20PM
We could definitely afford the fuel to put you in orbit...without a space suit.
Stkman| 8.28.12 @ 5:58PM
actually the return on investment from space exploration has exceeded the cost ten fold or better. Look at all the things we take for granted that came about because of the space race and space exploration. From micro-wave ovens to cell phones to weed eaters. The phones we use today have a thousand times more capacity than the Apollo Command Modules had.
It comes down to leadership and we don't have it with today bootlickin politicians.
PolishKnight| 8.28.12 @ 7:31PM
Let's spend a billion dollars on digging holes and filling them back in. The technological developments in earth moving equipment, drilling technologies, environmental lessons, etc. would more than make up for the cost...
Bottom line: The (early) space program was a successful socialist and fascist enterprise while Obama's attempts to build "green energy" with trillions of dollars is a historic boondoggle (something about his administration should be historic besides him merely getting elected). No definitive conclusion about all that, just an observation.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 8.28.12 @ 7:50AM
The very exclusive fraternity of those who have placed their feet on other than terra firma has lost the president of the mother club. Rest in peace, Mr. Armstrong, and thank you for not forgetting the rest of us.
THKrupp| 8.28.12 @ 8:52AM
Nice article Ms. Duffles
Al Adab| 8.28.12 @ 9:48AM
It was not simply the quality of the man admirable as that was. That was shared by many others, millions, who each had a part to play in the monumental event with which Armstrong is synonymous.
What is ironicaly sad beyond belief in his passing is the simple fact that, as a nation, we have turned our back on the promise of a a future he and others built. Having given mankind the option of that future, we reject and leave to others the opportunity to follow it. Perhaps the future of humanity lies not among the planets and stars, but if it does, the likelihood increases that those people will speak Chinese and not English; that they will carry with them not liberty but a mandarin tyranny. We owe Armstrong and his collegues an apology for our refusal to grasp the opportunity they risked so much to give us.
THKrupp| 8.28.12 @ 11:01AM
I would not go so far as to say we have abandoned the future. Right now as we speak we have a robot on Mars collecting information and sending it back. Thats pretty amazing in my book. Granted we hire the Russians to get us in orbit but like a businessman that hires a taxi to get from the airport to an important meeting, that doesnt make the meeting any less important or successful.
btims86| 8.28.12 @ 12:22PM
We landed a "robot" on Mars in the summer of 1976 (lookup the Viking probes, 1976). It's only being heralded today because we have no other real accomplishments.
And y0ur last point doesn't make any sense.
gene| 8.28.12 @ 10:12AM
No flag at half mast from someone who gutted the Space Program. Only a short statement with a picture of "himself" looking at the moon.
The Narcissism of some know no bounderies.
Cobalt| 8.28.12 @ 11:08AM
Neil Armstrong was a good man, who handled fame well. He set a good example on how to lead a productive life, for children, and for adults as well.
John II| 8.28.12 @ 3:26PM
Well, I'm inclined to deduce from experience that there are, in fact, several million princes (anonymously) inhabiting this strange planet. Otherwise, thanks for the gracious tribute to Neil Armstrong.
As to Professor Obama's downgrading of the Space Program, almost all lefties of my acquaintance (quite a few in my work habitat of Academicus Moronicus) sneer at the Space Program as "a colossal bore."
Of course, the Left is the domain of narcissistic ideologues who have no interest in the real world, and the death of Neil Armstrong was no more than a photo-op for the Professor, with a silhouette of the Professor himself more prominent even than the canned sentiment articulated in his name.
One of my grandsons, age 6, is already hugely fascinated by (what's left of) the Space Program, and can recite all manner of details about the current Mars probe. As Hilaire Belloc remarked on a broader topic, the Space Program is one of those things of interest only to children and to mature adults. And so the Left sneers at the Space Program.
Back now to "Destination Moon" (1950), a landmark SF flick in which the childlike George Pal set in motion a healthy national craze that seems to have peaked two decades later, when Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon and the Left was already seizing the culture by the throat.
Occam's Tool| 8.28.12 @ 7:08PM
Destination Moon: Screenplay written by Heinlein.
I loved the Space Program at 7,17,27,37,47, and still do at 50. Of course, Medicine can mature one in the practice of it. G-d Bless your grandson.
RJ| 8.28.12 @ 4:30PM
Thank you for the article and I agree with the comments of others in being disappointed that Obama and much of the nation pays more attention to the death of troubled celebrities than a true American hero. It says much about the current state of our society.
Over the week-end I learned that a very young Neil Armstrong was selected to pilot a spacecraft even before the Project Mercury astronauts. Evidently the United States Air Force had a program named Man In Space Soonest (MISS), with the objective to put a man in outer space before the Soviet Union. The program was cancelled on August 1, 1958 and was replaced by NASA’s Project Mercury. Neil Armstrong was one of MISS astronauts, along with some other very accomplished test pilots, such as Scott Crossfield, Joe Walker and Ivan Kincheloe.
btims86| 8.28.12 @ 4:53PM
You are correct......back before it was decided to use a missle/rocket to "lift" a capsule into space, it was thought we would use a space-plane like the X-15 (and later the Space Shuttle). Armstrong, Crossfield, Kinchloe were the tops in that area. See the book and the movie, The Right Stuff for more background on this "plane vs rocket".
PolishKnight| 8.28.12 @ 7:27PM
The classy thing to do is just to say that Armstrong was a great man and will be missed and anything beyond that, is just glomming onto his celebrity which Obama has done.
But... there are some things to be observed and why not observe them now while they are relevant? This isn't his funeral but rather political commentary, so here goes:
Neil Armstrong was a white guy born and came of age in an era that Obama has said he wants to forget: the 1950's when the space race began and culminated in the moon landing. After that, it became the Democrat era of feminism, high gas prices, Jimmy Carter, and affirmative action. The world trade center buildings were put up in about 6 years. It took longer than that for modern New Yorkers to put in two reflection pools. Obama and his ilk celebrate the destruction of the European roots of American culture even as they worship Sweden and Germany.
Ironically, the space age of Armstrong's time represented the best of American government and private enterprise working together. The modern oligarchy we have can't make a decent $40 light bulb or electric car. The first American woman in space was a lesbian and the space shuttle program became a boondoggle with lying administrators (see Feynman's appendix F). The current Mars mission is fantastic but not a real challenge put into context of the past. Progressivism aspires to the mediocre.
sickofit5| 8.29.12 @ 9:41AM
It seems to me that it would be better to pay a NASA and defense industry engineers their salary then to use their salaries to pay for shovel ready jobs which cost us about the same. I recently read a book called Skunk Works which was about the early U-2 and Blackbird and stealth programs which were actually beginning at the same time as NASA was beginning to lift off. It is amazing what these guys were doing with slide rules.
Mistral| 8.29.12 @ 9:58AM
Requesciant in pace - Neil Armstrong - a great example to us of using one's talents to achieve on behalf of mankind. He was humble and loved life in its proper authentic sense as only truly great men can. Having seen Earth from the lunar perspective he was touched in such a divine and mystical way this came through in his life afterwards. Thank you Neil.