Friday, June 8, 2012

WARBIRDS REVISITED

I LIKE THE SKY, ARCATA, JUNE 2012

I think the sky in this photograph is the important element. It is, after all, what supports the aircraft. The sky is the constant. This aircraft is about seventy years old, and there will  come a time when it will no longer fly in these skies. Perhaps it is important to understand these things about impermanence.  I am about the same age as this bomber, and I can see that the time is coming where I will not soar as I once did, and I think I am all right with that.

We all realize that there are different time-lines for various creations. There are insects that only live a few short days. Some birds and small mammals live short lives. We outlive our dogs and cats. Mechanical devices by-and-large, can be kept in working condition as long as someone maintains them, but once they are abandoned they become trash, and rapidly decompose. Fernbridge has the potential to last centuries, but like the great temples of Greece and Rome, it too will sucumb to wind, rain, acid rain, floods, and perhaps intentional destruction.

All I am saying is that there are lessons in all this, and these exercises are for me a way to keep my awareness of the passage of my time.