I’m not sure what I was doing to get the result, but there have been more e-mail sign-up in the past 36 hours than any other time since the doors opened here and the lights went on. I guess I need to go knock on the dressing room door of Exciting Me and tell him it’s time to get on stage and impress the new arrivals so they contribute to making the rent here.
I love it! A great question, first thing in the morning.
I have a belt buckle my dad got me at the Denver Museum of Natural History 40 years ago. It's the Kwakiutl spirit hawk, from their totem poles. To the Kwakiutl, the hawk is the symbol of freedom through harmony with the universe. If you think about the way a hawk - or an airplane - flies, it is in a state of dynamic harmony with the physical forces of the universe: gravity and momentum (speed); there's a shifty balance between the two to bank and turn, to dive, to climb. When you're doing it right, you really are "at one with the universe." If you're not, you're headed toward making a permanent impression on the ground!
So, an airplane to me represents freedom. Plus, most of them are beautiful machines.
But while the machines are really nice, what's better is the people. Even the people in aviation I met that I didn't like were interesting people. All of them, whether they do it from self-awareness or not, are drawn to it for the same reason the hawk is. Almost everyone - with a couple major exceptions - first got interested in flying when they were a kid and saw an airplane, and they were taken by the magic.
It comes down to this: I don't meet guys like Admiral Shelton in any other activity, and my life is better for the privilege of knowing a guy like him. Read his obituary I put up: that's an adventurous life - he flew dangerous machines (and landed them on boats to boot) and mastered it, and in the process of mastering that, he mastered something in himself.
Richard Bach once wrote a short story, "That Old Crate," when he was writing for Flying Magazine. It's about a guy (him) who has an old airplane - an open-cockpit biplane - that he takes up flying one day at "magic hour" when the light and everything is just perfect. And he spends 20 minutes doing aerobatics in this beautiful place, the sky that's perfectly lit, it's almost a perfect spiritual experience, and then he comes back and lands, and two women who watched him turn away and he hears one of them say "He must be crazy, wanting to fly that old crate like that." And he feels sorry for them. I know exactly that feeling.
There's people who still say "If man was meant to fly, god would have given him wings." Well, god gave him the brains to figure out the laws of the universe and understand them, and so he made his own wings. And being like the hawk is just the best place you can be.
I don't know who your newbies are, but when I posted on my FB page, I added a teaser for all airplane enthusiasts. I know a few. Hope they jumped on board with you!
Lucky them! Maybe we all should give gift subscriptions for the holidays!
Keep thinking like that, MaryPat! :-)
It’s the buzz….
The word gets around ...
Many of us come to your blog not to learn about airplanes as much as to learn about why you like them so much.
I love it! A great question, first thing in the morning.
I have a belt buckle my dad got me at the Denver Museum of Natural History 40 years ago. It's the Kwakiutl spirit hawk, from their totem poles. To the Kwakiutl, the hawk is the symbol of freedom through harmony with the universe. If you think about the way a hawk - or an airplane - flies, it is in a state of dynamic harmony with the physical forces of the universe: gravity and momentum (speed); there's a shifty balance between the two to bank and turn, to dive, to climb. When you're doing it right, you really are "at one with the universe." If you're not, you're headed toward making a permanent impression on the ground!
So, an airplane to me represents freedom. Plus, most of them are beautiful machines.
But while the machines are really nice, what's better is the people. Even the people in aviation I met that I didn't like were interesting people. All of them, whether they do it from self-awareness or not, are drawn to it for the same reason the hawk is. Almost everyone - with a couple major exceptions - first got interested in flying when they were a kid and saw an airplane, and they were taken by the magic.
It comes down to this: I don't meet guys like Admiral Shelton in any other activity, and my life is better for the privilege of knowing a guy like him. Read his obituary I put up: that's an adventurous life - he flew dangerous machines (and landed them on boats to boot) and mastered it, and in the process of mastering that, he mastered something in himself.
Richard Bach once wrote a short story, "That Old Crate," when he was writing for Flying Magazine. It's about a guy (him) who has an old airplane - an open-cockpit biplane - that he takes up flying one day at "magic hour" when the light and everything is just perfect. And he spends 20 minutes doing aerobatics in this beautiful place, the sky that's perfectly lit, it's almost a perfect spiritual experience, and then he comes back and lands, and two women who watched him turn away and he hears one of them say "He must be crazy, wanting to fly that old crate like that." And he feels sorry for them. I know exactly that feeling.
There's people who still say "If man was meant to fly, god would have given him wings." Well, god gave him the brains to figure out the laws of the universe and understand them, and so he made his own wings. And being like the hawk is just the best place you can be.
You shared some of your story. That’s pretty powerful.
Take all the positive attention you can get.
I don't know who your newbies are, but when I posted on my FB page, I added a teaser for all airplane enthusiasts. I know a few. Hope they jumped on board with you!
So glad I asked! Love the hawk analogy. Now, I’ll get back to “tidal Wave.” Then, your Vietnam ones, perhaps.
👏🏻