Fear of Flying

I have flown more times than I care to remember and yet each new flight is like the first. My imagination runs wild. My worst fears rise up into my consciousness no matter how unreasonable. I tell myself that it is safer than driving a car, that the odds and the statistics are in my favor. And yes, there is the thrill of the takeoff and the relief of the landing; but I am never fully at ease. For me, it is the utter lack of control; that you have placed yourself so completely in the hands of a stranger and an indifferent machine. I don’t even like being a passenger in a car! So this is where faith comes in: Faith in the machines we build, faith in our fellow man, and yes, faith in a deity. We need God (hope) in moments like this (because fate is so fickle and our future so uncertain) to make sense of the senseless. If you think about it, flying just makes the uncertainties of daily life more acute. Yes, a plane can crash. But we can also get hit by a bus, suffer a heart attack, or contract covid. So we pray!

I saw the eyes of God in the uncertain fate of man.

Suspended in the abyss of the unknown terror of oblivion;

Helpless.

Chained to this random sequence of events both large and small.

A prisoner of my own destiny flying blind into the clouds.

Anticipating and waiting, always waiting, for that moment when

We cease to be what we have always seemed to be.

And there is nothing we can do or say to avoid this day;

So we pray:

That the machine does not fail; that human weakness does not prevail;

That our eyes will surely open to greet the dawn of a brand new day.

And we give thanks to this best hope we call God,

When the fear of the moment subsides into mere guilty relief.

And we are grounded again on this good earth.