I am sooooo small

I am the very last person in the country to get on a jet in the post 9/11 era. Yesterday I actually got around to going to the airport and boarding a plane. My last flight was on 9/08/2001 and was from Phoenix to St. Louis. Oddly this flight was from St. Louis to Phoenix. Wouldn't it be lovely if we could reverse all that has happened in our world as easily as I retraced my steps? It isn't happening. I have not been avoiding flying. I just haven't had anywhere that I needed to be. Well, no place that required jet engines and altimeter's. And now I am sitting with my bride in the suburbs of Seattle, Wa. I've barely looked out the hotel window. I think it's partly sunny. And it's going to be 72 degrees today. Max. That's why I chose this place. That and because it is the farthest I could get us from our home and remain in the lower 48. I'm not sure why I wanted to remain in the states. I'm just a state-side kind of guy I guess. Anyway ...

Here are some things that I learned or remembered while "slipping the surly bonds of earth" yesterday...

-I am small. Very small. Sometimes I get caught in the trap of believing that all of life, all of the world, revolves around me and my issues. If I am upset then the world must be off kilter. Spinning off its axis. And it is not. Those jet engines just kept gobbling up real estate and the more they gobbled the more there was to gobble. And all of those people down there? Not one of them knew I was up in the sky. I am sure none of them even cared unless I fell on their heads. Which I did not. We are all better off for this. (On the other hand falling out of the sky unexpectedly is probably the only way I will ever get on CNN.)

-Clouds are strikingly beautiful from above. There is little of the flat, gray sameness to them. They bubble and they billow and the go in anyway the please. If clouds looked from below like they look from above they would scare all of us to death. God keeps the best view of the clouds for Himself and for those who fly jets.

-Lightening at night is REALLY cool from above. You cannot describe it. it is just ... raw power.

-Phoenix is hot. Really. I am not kidding.

-Professional glass blowers are fun to talk to. Master professional glass blowers are even more fun. For about thirty minutes. At that point they have nothing new to say and yet they never finish saying it. Put a little liquer in them and they begin to say nothing with gusto.

-Gray haired ladies in their seventies have every right to insist on only reading the King James Version of the bible if they want to. I do not have the heart to argue with them. It brings them a sense of security and peace and that is just fine with me.

-I do not agree with laws legalizing prostitution. But there is one place where, if you are going to legalize it, you might want to start. Nevada. And actually sex for money is legal in much of that state. After spending a great amount of time flying over it yesterday I must say that there is probably nothing else to do down there. I do not think that God is going to "look the other way" but if He ever did that might be where He would do it.

-I am absolutely drawn to bathrooms on airplanes. The ceiling curves severely over your head. One foot above that curve you would be dead. One foot below that curve you can pee in peace. Somehow (though I am not sure how) that seems to be a fitting metaphor for life. I must work on that. I'll get back to you.

That is it for now. I have to go pick-up a rental car so that I can peek into a volcano and look for some whales. No, really. That's what I am going to do. Ok, not in the same place. But that is on the agenda. Along with some extended time in a hot tub.

Later.