Clear to Land

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Christopher and Nico at Miami Dolphins Training facility June 9 , 2018


June 29, 2018


Have you ever flown in a plane?  Cruising in a jet at 35,000 feet above the clouds.  Man, does it look like heaven from here?  Can you imagine being able to exit the plane and run amongst the cotton ball fields of the sky?  The sight is so wonderful.  It’s heaven, and it seems to be within my grasp.

My imagination goes wild.  I pretend I can see my family and friends who have died.  If only I was a simple flight away from seeing them all again.   Maybe the isolation way up here in the sky makes me nostalgic.  Being inside a plane is the most isolated you’ll feel, even though you’re crammed in a sardine can of over 100 people or more. 

Flying high in the sky, skimming the clouds, and looking at the sun as it lights up the gloomy and dreary down below gives me hope that mankind can somehow find beauty in the simplicity of air travel.  Where else can so many people of all different races, cultures, faiths, and differences of opinion tolerate each other for so long?  But once we leave this aircraft and return to our corners of the world, our opinions are spewed again directly toward each other like daggers as we try to bring each other down. (see what I did there?)

On this plane, I have my Coke and Jack in my seat.  I take a sip and wonder what it is like to live up here in these wonderful cumulus clouds.  But then I realize that no matter how hard I try to run from my worries, I can’t elude what is still out there waiting for me because lately, the things in the news can make any person depressed.  Just like those clouds that drift along in the jet stream, one can’t avoid the heavy burden of potentially merging with other clouds that contain torrential rains and thunderstorms. 

But I can ride the storms out and still have a successful landing as long as I fly above the mess. When the dark clouds recede, they reveal that hope does exist through the blistering weather. I may see those beautiful runway lights and begin to land.  

I have zoned out this entire flight.  I smiled and nodded at the flight crew.  Paid for my extra alcoholic drink.  Flipped through the movie section until I got bored.  It worked up my imagination as I gazed at the clouds and looked at all my fellow passengers who were doing their own thing until I felt the plane begin to descend.  Now, we are told to put up our tray tables, place our seats upright, turn off our electronics, have trash ready as they prepare to make one more pass-through, and then prepare for our landing.  

I miss my view from 35,000 feet already.  Things were so tranquil then.  I’m below the heavenly clouds and cleared to land back on Earth.  Where would I land if I were flying up in the heavens?







Kid in a candy store. Captain Imperfecto at the Miami Dolphin Training Facility, June 9th, 2018.


502 words

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