"Oh my God!" I yelled excitedly. "I can't believe my eyes!" Three women turned their heads and looked out the windows of my car to see what was so incredible. All they saw was sagebrush for we were in the middle of a desert. Where were we exactly? If I told you I would have to kill you. But let me put you at ease...it was not area 51.
I stopped the car and got out. "Hand me my camera, quick!" I said with urgency. There they were...two beautiful SR-71's; black, sleek, futuristic--gleaming in the sunshine. We were the only ones there to appreciate them.
"What is that?" My best friend's daughter said pointing. She asked the wrong question. Out of my mouth gushed all the praise I could lavish on such works of art. "It's called the Blackbird and travels three times the speed of sound. Pilots have to wear space suits just like astronauts. It's made out of titanium like the Space Shuttle..." Long before I was tired of speaking of them, my friends were tired of listening.
I tried to take pictures worthy of the aerodynamic wonder through the chain link fence but my attempts could not do them justice.
I had only read a few pages of Skunk Works but I remembered how the author said that while flying at night and looking at the round orb of the earth below (they can fly the same height as the Space Shuttle) he turned off all the lights in his cockpit and the luminosity of starlight was enough for him to read his panel.
I sighed deeply and mumbled to myself, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever!" Though I doubt very much whether the poet had something like this in mind when he penned the famous line.
"What did you say?" My friend asked. "Oh, it was just something Keats wrote long ago. I bit my lip and did not proceed further. It was pointless to explain. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder the old adage went. I could tell that when it came to supersonic jets like these I was alone in my assessment.
"Let's find someplace to eat!" another friend suggested. I smiled as I got back in the car...now here was something we could all agree on.
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4 comments:
I still think about you when Michael points jets out to me. Those are some great photos, yours or not.
I think the choices your son makes will be fascinating to witness. He might be an awesome drummer or super pilot one day. Isn't it something how God put those desires in little ones?
It really is. I do hope that he continues in his interest in music. He especially likes the drums but has also shown interest in the piano/keyboard, guitar, flute & violin. A kids show he watches is all about instruments so that's a good influence. I love watching him grow & develop his own personality.
Just to help the imaging of this story...it happened about 5 years ago when Maddy, Joella, Melanie and I were on a road trip. We were lost and going down a road in what looked like God forsaken country and then I saw the "light." I could almost hear the angel choir singing the "Hallelujah!" chorus. God was showing me that "getting lost" was simply a detour to something much better.
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