Sometimes, it seems like Midwesterners have inferiority complexes.
We don't have beaches, mountains or coastlines. We can claim few big cities. People call our homes part of the "flyover states."
We forget that great things can come from flat spaces.
Neil Armstrong, who died Saturday, was born and went to high school in Wapakoneta, Ohio, a town of less than 10,000 people. He attended Purdue University in Lafayette and didn't leave the country until his service in the Korean War caused him to.
Even after working for NASA, being honored by 17 countries, traveling the world, flying hundreds of kinds of aircraft and walking on the moon, Armstrong returned back to the Midwest. He's said to have died in Cincinnati, a little more than 100 miles away from where he went to high school.
In the wake of Armstrong's death, Midwesterners can claim the astronaut's achievements as ours and feel better about our flyover-state roots because of the way he glorified them. That pride will last a week or two; then a weekend will come when we've got nothing to do and find ourselves wishing we lived somewhere louder, busier or bigger.
Or we can learn something from Armstrong and his love of this flat land.
On his way to the moon in 1969, Armstrong sent several messages to Houston. One was a shoutout to a Boy Scout troop in Idaho.
The man was flying into outer space in an unprecedented exploration on behalf of all humankind, and he thought about some kids going camping. If this says anything about Armstrong, it tells us the astronaut, perhaps ironically, was grounded.
Maybe growing up in the Midwest gave him that: an ability to see life at its basics.
Here in the heartland, life is quieter than elsewhere. We have the chance to do a lot of soul searching, to find the beauty in small things. If Armstrong's example is any indication, we can visit the moon and still appreciate the nuances of home.
His family has presented the world with this invitation: "The next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink."
Here, 80 miles from Armstrong's birthplace and 100 miles from his alma mater, we don't have a lot of light pollution. We've got a pretty clear view of the moon and the stars that surround us.
Look up long enough, and maybe we'll see what Armstrong did: anything is possible.
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