My Imagination Ate My Homework

Su left me the assignment of writing about how things have changed in our first 14 years in Costa Rica - time flies fast when you are having fun (or, are at least very busy)! However, as I washed dishes this morning and listened to the BBC interview Buzz Aldrin about the passing of his colleague, Neil Armstrong, my mind was taken back to the lunar landing in 1969. So, I guess I will have to fulfill my assignment next week. I'll just tell Su that "my imagination ate my homework."

People often remember where they were and what they were doing when a national calamity occurred. President Kennedy's assassination (I actually know someone who was on the infamous knoll when the shooting took place); MLK, Jr.'s assassination; the Challenger disaster, and, unfortunately, many others just stick in our minds. For some reason, it is not as easy to remember the same detail with the big, positive events which impact us. Maybe that says more about humankind than we care to admit.

My father can remember where he was and what he was thinking when he first heard about Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic. It marked him in a very profound way. Probably as a direct result, when my sister Janet was particularly fussy one Sunday morning, he took her for a ride in the car to allow my mother to actually listen to the sermon. Can you believe it? Somehow that car ended up at a local airport where he went on his first plane ride!

At least that is his story and, at 90 years of age, he is sticking to it.

For those who watched it on television, the moon landing was one of those positive moments in history which will always be a touchstone in your personal history. I watched it at my sister's home (now all grown up and not quite as fussy) in the Minneapolis area. Even for someone as confused as I was in 1969, it was still memorable.

One of my favorite facts about the mission is that Armstrong and Aldrin actually broke the ignition switch for the ascent engine when they were moving around the lunar module in their rather bulky spacesuits. So, innovating as all good techos do, they used part of a pen to push the circuit breaker in to activate the launch sequence. Aldrin claims to still have that pen - and all engineers of a certain age would give their favorite Pickett "slipstick" to get it!

Since that time, I have always paid special attention to Neil Armstrong's rare interviews. In public he was a man of few words regarding his "small step/giant leap" experience. He did not capitalize excessively on his personal fame. He insisted he was one man on a very large team. He remained uniquely proud of the fact that he was a "pocket protector kind of nerd." 

That kind of humility is rare today - even in Christianity. We have become enamored with popular personalities. If the "most-recent-preacher-to-hit-the-bestseller-list" says something, we tend to believe it and repeat it - even though it may have little basis in the Scripture. Hype overwhelms and eventually destroys the value of an honest, everyday spiritual walk. Unfortunately, Marshall McLuhan's secular prophecies have come true.

In an age where "all media exists to give our lives artificial perceptions and arbitrary values," I am admittedly a bit jaded. However, it seems to me if our Christianity had a bit less marketing and bit more walking and applying, we might come closer to what Jesus had in mind for His disciples. If we were willing to say we are simply "grace-saved, sinner kind of guys," who are one part of a larger community, we might end up doing more and talking less about it than we have since Neil Armstrong took "one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind."