A flight in the rain
I remember the first time I had dreamt of space.
It was a fever dream, the sort that conjures up images of luminous nebulae & strange galactic halos. And stars, infinite cathedrals of stars. And I floated through it all with wide eyes in my make-believe spaceship. I would reach outer space someday, for sure.
Of course I never did. I outgrew the kid, and his fever dream turned into a persistent lump in my throat.
In the frigid mornings in Clement Town, the water ran a thousand sharp needles through my skin as I remembered that fever dream, this time as a prospective fighter pilot. I was now 22, raging through the dying light with the fury of a thousand aces running in my blood. Only the flame and the smoke from a bloody dogfight could satiate the beast in me now. That was my moment of redemption.
And yet, I never did get to take-off and "touch the sky with glory", as I'd wished. Some flights are grounded in the sweet sunshine, and this time again, I'd made peace with it. That damned lump never went away.
Such is the tragedy of life. With this insane power to dream impossible dreams, we are dealt a cruel hand when it comes to waking up. Dreams are like a flight in the rain; the clouds are unkind on the followers of sunshine.
A Tejas crashed today, the pilot was killed. Another crash, another statistic. Another nail in the coffin of a child's fever dream. And yet, I would trade everything for this one shot at the sky, come death or come rain.
I was born with fire in my blood. Nothing short of an inferno will take me out, at least that much is the inconvenient truth. I wasn't meant to go down in a cockpit, or a spaceship in deep space. But I will go down with a life fully lived.
Tejas will fly again. Another kid will live his dream again. The rain shall not curse the sunshine, as long as the wings are outstretched and the soul is ready to take flight.
And so will I, in honor of that kid who dreamt an impossible dream.
I will take flight in the rain, because I was born for this. The audacity was never acquired, it was built-in.
рдирднрдГ рд╕реНрдкреГрд╢рдВ рджреАрдкреНрддрдореН
- Nemo