From low to high

I recently drove across this vast country from Phoenix and beyond to upstate New York. It took 24-days of leisure travel to get to Southern California and five days of Interstate highway travel to get home. I reveled in the opportunity to see our land from the back roads to the Interstate highways of America as I headed West and then returned to the East.

This weekend I will take basically the same route only at 35-thousand feet. I am privileged to head back to Arizona and Sedona for a poetic presentation. I have flown this path many times and my memory is clear.

As I look out the airplane window I will see the circles and squares of farmland green and growth. I will see the winding rivers of opportunity past and present and the waters flowing to the future.

The clouds too will be a reminder of negative and dispassionate thought that could obscure the greatness of our future if we let it. I always think of 9/11, as I have on every flight I’ve taken since that terrible day, and how we must as a nation remain vigilant and strong.

When I look at the flat plains of the midwest and the Rocky Mountains I will think of the song “America” and the words “purple mountains majesties above the fruited plain”. They really are purple from a distance and from above.

There is a grandure and grace about this land and people. It’s just sometimes hard to see when you’re on the busy ground of life. The reminder in high flight is wonderful as it was at 70 MPH on the ground.