Small Step, Big Leap

I think I've noted before that a preschool-aged Friar watched the moon landing and then later Neil Armstrong's historic first step onto the lunar surface at his grandmother's house. It was on a tiny oval screen embedded in a huge cabinet in her living room.

I've reflected more than once what it must have been like for her -- born seven years before powered flight, living long enough to see human beings land on the moon. Of late a somewhat meaner thought has occurred to me: That she, born in 1896, saw something that no one born in 1996 has ever seen: human beings standing on the moon. Sure, they've seen film, and they can listen to every second of the mission, but they're seeing events from their past.

Maybe they'll get to see it for real one day.  Hope so, anyway.