Flight

Flight fascinates me. Each time I fly, I am in awe of how an airplane is crafted to give man wings. How we defied nature and learned to fly. We have exceeded that of birds in that we can put hundreds of people aboard an airplane, have multiple airplanes in the air at one time, and we have mastered how to do this safely. We have created this intricate web of air travel that allows us to traverse the globe. Think about what it takes to fly; it’s amazing! And it speaks to the genius of mere mortals.

But Man is both brilliant and stupid at the same time. We have the intellectual capacity to fly in the sky, but we have not figured out how to put out heads together and get along on the ground. Why is that? How can we be so smart and so dumb? Why do we hate and disrespect each other so much when we’re on the ground? Why are we bearing witness to the atrocities of Man against Man? We are humans who have lost our humanity.

Every time I fly, I notice the kaleidoscope of people moving through the airport, hopping on and off planes. We are every race and creed on the planet. We are young and old. We travel for business and for pleasure. We travel with family and friends. We travel alone. We are part of the world. We are pieces of the fabric that is our society. The pilot, the flight attendants and passengers are all blanketed by the same prayer: to make it to our destination safely. We are not thinking about the superficial barriers that separate us.  

But once we land, our differences move front and center and start to divide ourselves. The fabric that binds us in the sky starts to fray at the edges as we snatch and pull away from each other. We think that we are different—better in some way. We separate ourselves into opposing teams. We become Us and They, and whoever is not Us, is automatically They, and They (who ever They are that’s different from Us is the enemy). And we treat them that way.

What will it take to soar above our differences when we’re on the ground? I wonder?