Neil Armstrong was seemingly a shy but determined chap who was in the right place at the right time to become one of the most remembered men in history. His modesty & poise should be as well remembered as his singular achievement (after all nobody else can be the 'first' human on the moon!). It was an odd sensation his passing. Responses ranged fro the banal -'Neil Armstrong -meh' that I saw on Twitter (one supposes the author's own achievements must be staggering to invoke this response) to page upon page of tribute and quote in certain areas of the news.
The odd thing is this. Nearly all of us never met Mr Armstrong. We never knew him and yet we felt we did. He was a part of the fabric of our lives. He stood on the lunar surface before I was born and the last moon mission as completed whilst I was still in swaddling clothes and yet I feel an affinity for them. They see to mark the zenith of an era of optimism and hubris tic positivity traceable back to the 50's but fuelled mostly by the 60's era of belief in the possibility of the fulfilment of dreams.
So let us not mourn the loss of the man but instead celebrate the life of the icon and all that it represents - to dream the impossible dreams and to achieve them.
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