Flight of Fancy

This last Saturday I flew to Arizona to visit with my sister and her family. On the flight out, I had a couple of thoughts.

The first thought was, how cool would it be if commercial jetliners had transparent ceilings. I think it would be neat to lean back in my chair and stare up into the sky. Now, I think I'd only want to do this during the night as it might get a little hot in the day with the Sun shining in. Therefore the plane would need some sort of retractable window covering in case the cabin got too hot or too bright. Think how neat it would be though to stare up at the stars on a clear night, or to see lightning flashing all around you during a storm. Granted some people may prefer not to see all the lightning crashing around them, but I think it would be exciting. I originally thought it might also be a good idea to have a transparent floor, sort of like a glass bottom boat, but this seemed somewhat impractical for a commercial jetliner, though perhaps it might be feasible for a private plane of some sort. Don't get me wrong, I personally would find it exhilarating to have a transparent aisle where I could see thirty thousand feet down, or to watch the runway grow ever closer as the plane lands. However, the impracticality is that you have a cargo/baggage compartment below most aisles and as fun as a transparent aisle may be, the excitement of staring at peoples luggage for several hours doesn't seem to merit the expense of installing such a perk. It's just too slight an improvement over the existing situation, unless of course the cargo hold was filled with objects that react to a decompressed environment such has cans of soda, people's pets, or Cuban refugees; then it might be interesting enough.

The second thought I had was that airplanes are like a microcosm of life. I compared my flight to our journey through life. Life is like waking up on a plane that is just taking off and you don't remember who you are, where you're from, or where you're going. All you know is the inside of the cabin and the people inside with you, all of whom are as forgetful as yourself. The thing that really struck me is how, on a flight, you feel like you're in control and that everything is alright. However, in reality, if something goes wrong, there's really nothing you can do. Your realm of "control" and influence is wholly confined to the cabin; how you interact with your fellow passengers, whether or not you choose to listen to the occasional warnings and announcements from the pilot over the intercom, to heed the safety card or ignore it. I think this is very similar to life. I often feel like I'm in control of situations, but how much control do we really have? In the end, the only thing we actually have any true control over is our own internal lives. We control how we respond to and influence the environment in which we're placed. I think our environment can extend into our own minds. We often think of our environment as our physical surroundings, but I think it also includes our chemical makeup, which when you think about it is a physical component of ourselves. The challenge is not to try and control other things, it's to act and react in the proper way to all of the various stimuli and challenges we face, be they mental or physical. I feel it's a comfort to know that there's a pilot and a destination on our "flight" through life and that everybody is capable of discovering this if they choose to seek out our "pilot" and ask about our "flight" information. I think that we need to remember that how we conduct ourselves on our "flight" is more important than how many bags of peanuts we receive, or whether or not we get a blanket, or how much leg room we have.