My topic, chosen because I couldn't think of anything else and that's the name of a piece of music I composed. Unlike the usual fiction, I've done a ramble.
The ambition to fly has been inherent in the human race for as long as we have been able to dream. Mythology is full of it, whether it be little people that have wings or romanticizing those creatures that naturally do, as in the saying “As free as a bird.” Our obsession with flight is such that we have even projected it onto other animals, such as the winged horse, Pegasus.
The dream of flying seems to contradict our vertigo and fear of falling, and yet the longing grows.
Given that we have fulfilled our dream, with airplanes and hot air balloons, it is rather strange that so many people who dream of white feathered wings and clear blue skies, have a profound hatred of flight in the conventional sense: airplanes. Perhaps it is not the vehicle in itself, but the tedious wait in the departure lounge beforehand. Or maybe it is the fact that so much weight is being propelled off the ground that it seems liable to crash, as they so often do. A Boeing 747 weighs around 400 tons at take off, including cargo and passengers. Such a prospect is enough to scare anyone.
Either way, it is rather a pity that our romanticizing of flight has manifested itself in such a dreary form of technology.
Notice also the amount of figures of speech that have to do with flight. Feelings soar, you feel uplifted, to soar on wings of love.
Could it be that our love of flying comes from a longing to be closer to Heaven, our eventual goal? The need to be closer to the Divine? It seems logical that it should be so, given that religions of all kinds see divinity in the stars, and religions make up a considerable part of our past and present.
But why does it take up so much of our life? Why does it dominate so? I don’t think there is anyone on this earth who has not wished they could fly. Perhaps it is human nature to long for the unattainable, and destroy that which they’ve got in order to try to achieve it.
