Flight

by Andrew Kishner

While life's emotions lift us up from time to time, our failure to perfect the other two elements of flight, thrust and control, means we too often crash.

Moving forward in life is easy enough to do, but finding enduring inspiration and discipline is not; meaning even if we can briefly leave the ground, we can't sustain a soar to our dreams.

When we are seated in the cockpit of a classic flyer in a hangar in a reverie of its control systems, our dreams of joy rides left to yesteryear, we are participants of a metal sculpture with problems of maintenance or rusty parts that keep the plane grounded.

If the time is right for peace, and our heartfelt hopes provide the lift, and a consensus of words--the controls--then all that's needed for this flight is the decision to move forward. Being mindful of our past failures and sober of our responsibilities, we can propel ourselves to new heights. This should be our commitment to future generations: to prove that our mastery of the launch and guidance of weapons is matched, and ultimately curbed, by our successful attempt to bring together three forces in the name of peace. 

This essay was originally shared in Feb. 2023. It's always a good lesson to glean from the genius of the Wright Bros. achievement which is the consolidation of elemental forces into one.