Life's Values Originate In Circumstances

I Hope You Either Take Up Parachute Jumping Or Stay Out Of Single Motored Airplanes At Night.

I Can't Get Used To The Ease With Which One Covers The World Today. It's No Longer An Effort--pole--equator--oceans--continents--it's Just A Question Of Which Way You Point The Nose Of Your Plane. The Pure Joy Of Flight As An Art Has Given Way To The Pure Efficiency Of Flight As A Science.... Science Is Insulating Man From Life -- Separating His Mind From His Senses. The Worst Of It Is That It Soon Anaesthetizes His Senses So That He Doesn't Know What He's Missing.

Without Death There Would Be No Awareness Of Life, And The Recurring Selection And Renewal That Has Caused Life's Progress Would Be Ended.

Life Is A Culmination Of The Past, An Awareness Of The Present, An Indication Of A Future Beyond Knowledge, The Quality That Gives A Touch Of Divinity To Matter.

I May Be Flying A Complicated Airplane, Rushing Through Space, But In This Cabin I'm Surrounded By Simplicity And Thoughts Set Free Of Time. How Detached The Intimate Things Around Me Seem From The Great World Down Below. How Strange Is This Combination Of Proximity And Separation. That Ground - Seconds Away - Thousands Of Miles Away. This Air, Stirring Mildly Around Me. That Air, Rushing By With The Speed Of A Tornado, An Inch Beyond. These Minute Details In My Cockpit. The Grandeur Of The World Outside. The Nearness Of Death. The Longness Of Life.