CONTEMPLATION
Flying in a six-seat Cessna at 8,000
ft. 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, 5000 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 man; daughters yet to be
married; grandchildren being spoiled by their grandma and grandpa; careers yet 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. An
unending spectacle of wonder. 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.
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