Category Archives: Aging and Freedom

Tribute to High Flight

28 Sunday Sep 2014

Posted by in Aging and Freedom, Inspiration, Maryland, Photography, Poetry, Writing

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"Inspiration," photo by Wilson Wyatt Jr.

“Inspiration,” photo by Wilson Wyatt Jr.      Click on photo for larger image

Today’s photo is a tribute to John Gillespie Magee Jr.’s familiar sonnet, “High Flight.”  He wrote the last line when he was inspired as a pilot, first reaching an altitude of 33,000 feet in 1941, during World War II:

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth, And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds, –and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of –Wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air…

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace Where never lark or even eagle flew — And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod The high untrespassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.                                                                   

A special thanks to the organizers of the Annual Easton Airport Day, on September 27, where “Warbird Formation” flyovers generated choruses of “wows” from an appreciative crowd of children, mothers, dads, and our veterans. The planes were classics, many dating back to World War II. One could not see the show without being mindful of the importance of flight to our freedoms.

It was a beautiful day, filled with family enjoyment.  It was also a day of inspiration.

A Choice…entertainment tonight, or poetry to inspire me for the rest of my life – Richard Blanco’s “One Today”

18 Saturday May 2013

Posted by in Aging and Freedom, Inspiration, Poetry, The Future, Uncategorized, Writing

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I had that choice this week…one of those times to pick between the ordinary and the extraordinary.  I could have seen a good movie or a play or a show on TV.  Nothing wrong with that.  Today, entertainment is only a “click” away.

But, instead, we drove two hours to a special reading of a poem.  To hear Richard Blanco, the fifth Inaugural Poet in history, read from his personal poetry and “One Today,” the poem he wrote for the nation…at the 2013 Presidential Inauguration.  I knew this would be unique, rarely to be repeated in a small gathering, as the poet told his story.  Another emigrant making an indelible contribution to the United States.

My wife and I attended…no, we listened…at a special gathering orchestrated by The Writer’s Center, in Bethesda.  The poet, one of the Center’s former teachers, told his remarkable story.  These were the words behind the words…some of the raw history behind the music of his poetry.

Richard Blanco has been acclaimed in poetry circles, winning praise and awards, but now he is known as one of the few poets to be celebrated on the world stage.  This would be a distinctive experience, one of those times I could place delicately in my memory, offering inspiration on demand…a gift that keeps on giving.

From the ending of his poem, “One Today”

We head home: through the gloss of rain or weight

of snow, or the plum blush of dusk, but always, always

Home, always under one sky, our sky. And always

One moon like a silent drum tapping on every rooftop

And every window, one country—all of us—

Facing the stars. Hope—a new constellation waiting

For us to map it, waiting for us to name it—together.

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A special “thank you” to my friends at The Writer’s Center, “one home,” a writer’s home, for creating this personal opportunity.

Aging and Freedom…”How would you like to die?”

27 Tuesday Dec 2011

Posted by in Aging and Freedom, Uncategorized

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Sunset Over the Valley

I just read a story about a man’s determination to be free and to realize a dream.  It was about his struggle to remain free in aging, to make his own choices, when others sought to place him in an “assisted living home”…ostensibly to protect him from himself in his final days.  We saw the world through the man’s mind.

All our lives we struggle with personal aspects of freedom, trying to find our way through the quagmire of reality toward some vision of freedom…reminds me of Jonathan Franzen’s novel, Freedom.  You’d think that as we get older and wiser, we’d reach our answer…and maybe we do in death.  Or, as Franzen illustrated in his novel, perhaps freedom is not all we think it will be.  There may be unintended consequences.

It seems as we grow older, in the final third of our lives, freedom is as much a dream as in adolescence, those precious years when a boy or a girl struggles through innocence to enjoy the imagined fruits of adulthood.  There is always someone to be beholding to…some impediment to reckon with.  Life becomes bigger than ourselves, never as simple as it seems.  It’s what it is.

My doctor asked me an interesting question the other day, after my annual physical exam. He finished going through my lab work, reviewed all the tests warranted for my age, and gave me a conclusion. He told me the good news was I was almost at no risk for any of the major causes of premature death.  My veins were clear, colon was healthy, good blood pressure, no heart disease, no cancer, clear lungs, etc.  All I needed to do was lose some weight and get more daily exercise…very reasonable. Then he said. “So, assuming you will live to be 85 or so, you face an enviable question. How would you like to die?”

It was striking, not what you’d expect your doctor to say after a successful physical exam. It was provocative, as I think he intended.  The question begs other questions, how will you lead the rest of your life…what will you do with it?  I’m still thinking of a dazzling array of interesting answers.  There are spiritual and personal choice concerns. Regardless of my imagination, the question of my own freedom keeps nudging up in importance…along with the unintended consequences.  It’s good to have choices.

Wouldn’t it be best if when we knew the time was right, we could just reach up and turn off the light?