I'm Not Bound To Be In Aviation

What Kind Of Man Would Live A Life Without Daring? Is Life So Sweet That We Should Criticize Men That Seek Adventure? Is There A Better Way To Die?

Our Emphasis On Science Has Resulted In An Alarming Rise In World Populations, The Demand And Ever-increasing Emphasis Of Science To Improve Their Standards And Maintain Their Vigor. I Have Been Forced To The Conclusion That An Over-emphasis Of Science Weakens Character And Upsets Life's Essential Balance.

By Day, Or On A Cloudless Night, A Pilot May Drink The Wine Of The Gods, But It Has An Earthly Taste; He's A God Of The Earth, Like One Of The Grecian Deities Who Lives On Worldly Mountains And Descended For Intercourse With Men. But At Night, Over A Stratus Layer, All Sense Of The Planet May Disappear. You Know That Down Below, Beneath That Heavenly Blanket Is The Earth, Factual And Hard. But It's An Intellectual Knowledge; It's A Knowledge Tucked Away In The Mind; Not A Feeling That Penetrates The Body.

It Is About A Period In Aviation Which Is Now Gone, But Which Was Probably More Interesting Than Any The Future Will Bring. As Time Passes, The Perfection Of Machinery Tends To Insulate Man From Contact With The Elements In Which He Lives. The 'stratosphere' Planes Of The Future Will Cross The Ocean Without Any Sense Of The Water Below. Like A Train Tunneling Through A Mountain, They Will Be Aloof From Both The Problems And The Beauty Of The Earth's Surface.

Shut Your Eyes And You Will Know What I Mean By Thought Entombed In Darkness. Light Comes Through The Senses, And Not Only Through The Sense Of Sight. When You See Without Feeling, You Are Still Partly Blind; You Lack The Inner Light That Brings Awareness. Awareness Requires The Interplay Of Every Faculty, The Use Of Your Entire Being As An Eye.