Flying in a six-seat Cessna at 5,000
feet on a clear night can be an exhilarating experience. What a sense of
freedom and escape. Looking at all the lit-up towns is truly fascinating. Small
patches of 50, 1000, 5,000 lights. Single lights off in an isolated nowhere.
Imagine, under all those lights, the stories people could tell: fathers trying
to teach their sons how to be a good man; a wife wondering why she married an abusive
husband; daughters yet to be married; grandchildren yet to appear; careers
still to be realized. Births, deaths, town heroes, town whores, lovers of life,
killers of hope. Things beautiful and thoughts ugly flood into my mind. The
plane turns dark, except for the lights below and the zillions of stars above.
The constellations look like they are alive. The Milky Way, pouring out its
miracle elixir. Orion, ready to do battle with evil. The North Star, about to
get a new job. It will need to guide us home.The regulator on the plane is out.
The instrument panel is black. There is no way to know if the landing gear went
down or not. It is a pity such a beautiful night ends with such bad news.
No comments:
Post a Comment