The blog by Chuck in which he linked us to one by Ansalee led me to some thoughts. I was struck by the difference in the tone of the blogs by Ansalee and Mary Lou. Ansalee’s was directed toward getting out into a wide world to experience many things. Mary Lou’s was directed towards the quiet pleasures of having a settled home.
I knew both of these ladies back in Heavener. Ansalee and I even sang in the same choir as early teenagers (I guess I was one of the sinful Presbyterians she mentioned). I knew Mary Lou while in high school and she was quiet, even back then. Clearly, they have different perspectives.
Some time ago it was such a beautiful day that Jessie and I went over to the nearest airport and rented an airplane to go sight seeing. I flew back over our house and looked over my garden from 2000 feet above the ground. That flight brought home the concept “perspective”.
When I am manually cultivating the garden it seems to be huge (actually it is only about 80 feet by 200 feet). From the air it looked tiny. My perspective had changed.
Then I entered a steep left turn to go back and also to get a better look at the garden. I asked Jessie what she thought about the small garden. She answered, “What garden?” From her side of the airplane (Cherokee with a low wing) she couldn’t see any part of the garden looking across me and through my window. She had a different perspective.
It was in mid-June, so on the way back to the airport I overflew the site of the Bonnaroo festival in Manchester. The multi-hundred acre site was dotted with tents. For those who don’t know about it, Bonnaroo is a sort of Woodstock South. About 90,000 people drive from all over the US and pay a couple hundred dollars for the privilege of spending three days in the hot Tennessee sun listening to incredibly loud rock groups for 16 hours at a time. Along with the hot sun and jammed grounds, the attendees also get to live in close proximity to all sorts of drugs and drug dealers. For me, Bonnaroo is a traffic jam on Interstate 24 up to 20 miles long as the people arrive. All the secondary roads are also jammed up for miles. But for those who attend Bonnaroo is three days of continuous music (?) that evidently makes them very happy. We have a different perspective.
3 Comments:
People have different perspectives, but that's people. It must really give you a "high" to fly. I'm getting where I can barely drive these days. Fact of the matter is, Cynthia drives practically everywhere we go. I drive my truck to go the grocery store, to the doctor's office, etc.
John, I do. As the poem puts it, "I have slipped the surly bonds of earth---". I still get a kick out of a perfect (no one knows when the wheels touch down) or a near-perfect (just the slightest squeak) landing.
After a very satisfying landing, once, in a Cessna Cardinal (remember those, Glen), I recall asking my passengers, "someone look out the window and make sure the wheels are rolling on the runway". I was so proud of that one...they weren't always that smooth.
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