Article June 1, 1946 Issue

Lessons from an Airplane

LUCY HUGHES

There are probably few moments of human accomplishment which bring greater release to thought than that moment when a student pilot first takes his airplane off the ground alone, when he sits in the cockpit and watches the earth dropping away and sees earth's horizons broadening. He feels as if the ties which had bound him to the earth and sky had been broken, and he breathes more freely in the spaciousness of the heavens. This experience illustrates the liberation that comes to human consciousness when the power of holy inspiration lifts it beyond matter's stifling horizons till it soars unhampered in the freedom of spiritual harmony. In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 125), Mary Baker Eddy vividly pictures the dominion over space and matter which men gain through spiritual understanding, by referring to the time when "the astronomer will no longer look out from them upon the universe.

Most certainly it is not necessary for us to fly an airplane to find either freedom or inspiration. But those whose work carries them above the clouds often learn lessons that may be helpful to others. Because so much of the safety in flying is apparently dependent upon the elements, one of the flier's first lessons is never to trust solely in his own ability or in that solely in his own ability or in that of even the best aviators. There is only One who may be counted upon always to bring the plane safely in, and that One is the divine intelligence "who hath gathered the wind in his fists" (Prov. 30:4).

A student of Christian Science was trying one day to improve her spot landings, but the harder she tried, the more difficult it seemed, till she felt completely frustrated and thought, "I just can't do it myself." Suddenly she realized it was a fact that she could not do it herself, and that the trouble lay in trying to do it herself. Remembering Jesus' words, "I can of mine own self do nothing" (John 5:30), and, "The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works" (John 14:10), she dropped the sense of personal responsibility and determined to let the one Mind govern the situation. She rested in the knowledge that real activity is an expression of that intelligence which knows no handicaps, no poor judgment, but only the perfect, natural unfoldment of orderly, vital ideas. Because this truth became increasingly clear to her, the rest of the flight period was filled with progressively better flying. The wind, the plane, the very air itself, seemed to cooperate in every way to make smooth on-the-spot landings.

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