What's it like?
"What's it like to fly in an airplane," Henry asked a couple of days ago when he learned I would be flying.
"I don't really notice it," I said. "I put on my headphones and start reading a book. . .I feel the take-off and landing but I don't pay much attention."
"You don't? Don't you wonder how airplanes fly? Do you look out the windows? Are you above the clouds? Can you see the ground? Take some pictures for me," he said almost shocked by my approach to flight.
Flying has lost so much of its excitement. You have to show up early, stand in line, take your shoes and belt off, empty your pockets, be scanned and searched, you have to wait and wait. . .
I can honestly say I have not enjoyed a plane flight more that I did to and from Jacksonville the past two days than perhaps my first ride on an airplane. It is amazing to look at the vastness of this country, the cloud formations, the cities, the rivers, the landscape. I looked out the windows and wondered how we stayed in the air. I watched our take-off and our approach and our landing. And I took pictures for Henry. . .and me. I thought about what it is like to fly.
I remember years ago going to pick up my 93-year-old grandfather at the assisted living home. I would take him for drives. We would go to the grocery or just cruise around the city. He would walk out of his room and steady himself by keeping one hand on the wood railing as we moved down the hall. I remember him chuckling, almost to himself, and then commenting in his Scottish brogue on how nice and smooth the wood had been sanded. As we drove the car down the road he would lift both arms out in front of him and mimic the twists and turns the car took, explaining to me how wonderful it was that the road was so smooth for the cars. If a bird whistled from a tree, he would whistle back at it and laugh. He was like a little kid but he made me notice things I had stopped noticing. He made me look around and wonder.
Henry did the same thing with his simple question.
Next is his turn to find out.
Thanks for the reminder and good for you! One of the true joys of being a teacher is that I get to experience this everyday; numerous times, if I'm lucky. I've never learned more.
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Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
Ad danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds-and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence, Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air,
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sancity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
Gillespie Magee
Killed in Action 11 December 1941
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That is how I felt Larry. Reawakened.
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Never lose that sense of wonder - children can be the best teachers of that.
My suggestion - use your camera...you'll see more than you ever did before...
- Jeff
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Here's a link for Henry. I believe they hold an event at the Heath airport every year. http://www.youngeagles.org
I can't grow up enough to quit staring in amazement when a jet flies and I've spent plenty of time in them.
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