In Wilderness I Sense The Miracle Of

By Day, Or On A Cloudless Night, A Pilot May Drink The Wine Of The Gods, But It Has An Earthly Taste; He's A God Of The Earth, Like One Of The Grecian Deities Who Lives On Worldly Mountains And Descended For Intercourse With Men. But At Night, Over A Stratus Layer, All Sense Of The Planet May Disappear. You Know That Down Below, Beneath That Heavenly Blanket Is The Earth, Factual And Hard. But It's An Intellectual Knowledge; It's A Knowledge Tucked Away In The Mind; Not A Feeling That Penetrates The Body.

On A Long Flight, After Periods Of Crisis And Many Hours Of Fatigue, Mind And Body May Become Disunited Until At Times They Seem Completely Different Elements, As Though The Body Were Only A Home With Which The Mind Has Been Associated But By No Means Bound. Consciousness Grows Independent Of The Ordinary Senses. You See Without Assistance From The Eyes, Over Distances Beyond The Visual Horizon. There Are Moments When Existence Appears Independent Even Of The Mind. The Importance Of Physical Desire And Immediate Surroundings Is Submerged In The Apprehension Of Universal Values.

What Kind Of Man Would Live A Life Without Daring? Is Life So Sweet That We Should Criticize Men That Seek Adventure? Is There A Better Way To Die?

I Began To Feel That I Lived On A Higher Plane Than The Skeptics Of The Ground; One That Was Richer Because Of Its Very Association With The Element Of Danger They Dreaded, Because It Was Freer Of The Earth To Which They Were Bound. In Flying, I Tasted A Wine Of The Gods Of Which They Could Know Nothing. Who Valued Life More Highly, The Aviators Who Spent It On The Art They Loved, Or These Misers Who Doled It Out Like Pennies Through Their Antlike Days? I Decided That If I Could Fly For Ten Years Before I Was Killed In A Crash, It Would Be A Worthwhile Trade For An Ordinary Life Time.

In Honoring The Wright Brothers, It Is Customary And Proper To Recognize Their Contribution To Scientific Progress. But I Believe It Is Equally Important To Emphasize The Qualities In Their Pioneering Life And The Character In Man That Such A Life Produced. The Wright Brothers Balanced Sucess With Modesty, Science With Simplicity. At Kitty Hawk Their Intellects And Senses Worked In Mutual Support. They Represented Man In Balance, And From That Balance Came Wings To Lift A World.