Video Transcript
Between 1969 and 1972, twelve astronauts successfully landed on the moon. They brought back to Earth samples and data that’s helped us understand the universe better. But what did they leave behind there on the moon? In addition to their footprints and some equipment like the lunar rover, some astronauts left a more unique mark on the moon.
In 1971, during the Apollo 14 mission, NASA astronaut Alan Shepherd brought a golf club, a modified Wilson six iron. He hit two golf balls around the surface of the moon. And they’re still there today. During the Apollo 16 mission, astronaut Charles Duke brought a photograph of him and his family. The photo was framed and signed by Duke and tucked in a plastic sleeve and left on the surface of the moon.
The 2018 movie First Man, based on the authorized autobiography by author James Hansen and starring Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong makes this idea the climactic ending of the film. One of the most dramatic moments of the end of the film shows Neil Armstrong standing on the edge of a crater holding a bracelet with the name of his daughter Karen, who died seven years earlier. Armstrong tosses the bracelet into the depths of a dark crater with tears streaming down his face. It’s a touching scene that concludes a long and challenging journey to get to the moon and to deal with his own grief. Throughout the film, Neil is seen as sort of detached and quietly still mourning the loss of his daughter. His two year old daughter undergoes lengthy treatment for a brain tumor after a death. He never speaks to anyone about her again save one short scene in the movie. He appears throughout the film to be grieving deeply, and the trip to the moon becomes a significant journey to complete this grieving process.
There’s just one problem. There’s no real evidence that this moment of Neil Armstrong leaving a bracelet on the moon ever actually happened. In real life, there is no record of a bracelet in the flight log of cargo carried to the moon with Neil Armstrong and his crew.
James Hansen, author of the book First Man, quotes Neil Armstrong in the book as saying, “I didn’t bring anything else for myself to the moon.” Honoring his daughter’s memory on the moon’s surface would’ve been poetic. Hansen wrote, “What could have made the first moon landing more meaningful for all mankind than a father honoring the cherished memory of his beloved little girl. One of her toys, an article of her clothing, a lock of hair.”
The wish that Armstrong brought some sort of memento with him is what gave screenwriter Josh Singer the idea to write the bracelet scene. “If it weren’t a hope raised by the historian, I wouldn’t have included it.” Singer said in an interview.
This idea that Neil would’ve done something private to remember his daughter and bring some closure to the grief he’s feeling is powerful. When you think about it, it’s just stuff. It’s clumps of atoms. Why would an object matter?
Every day we interact with all kinds of objects. However, we do have this curious tendency to imbue objects with significance and meaning, or often significant events or people in our lives transform an ordinary object into something more meaningful. Think of your dad’s favorite shirt, or your childhood blanket, or your mother’s engagement ring.
In the movie First Man, Neil’s daughter’s bracelet becomes a sign of his daughter. But also becomes something of a talisman of why he’s going to the moon in the first place, and it gives him strength to keep going and finally complete his grieving process. The bracelet becomes something that gives him motivation and strength. Obviously, the bracelet could never replace his daughter. But it did help him along this dangerous journey, possibly even at times when he was lacking the will to keep going by reminding him of why he’s doing it in the first place.
Maybe Neil Armstrong didn’t leave his daughter’s bracelet on the moon. Maybe he just brought it with him. Or maybe he didn’t bring the bracelet at all. But the power of these reminders, these special objects, not just objects, but songs or traditions, words or actions, it’s impossible to negate. Humans are physical beings and spiritual beings. We seem to need physical things, signs, to be imbued with spiritual significance to help us on our journeys.
The Catholic Church in fact, offers many signs that point us towards something deeper called sacramentals. These objects or actions draw us into greater attention to God at work in the world and in our lives.
So what mementos do you have in your life? What mementos do you surround yourself with? And what are they reminding, pushing, and motivating you toward?