Take off

I’m just about packed and ready for the big bum lift. Take off is the bit I'm really looking forward to, all packed and strapped in, slowly trundling out to the runway, the wings actually flapping very slightly under the weight of those great ungainly engines. There’s a feeling of shared doubt and commitment; we're all in this together; nobody speaks. A collective will quietly gathers behind averted glances, on and on for what seems like a couple of miles, lumbering along heavily and clumsily. Four thousand miles in this? Three hundred of us? You must be joking! Then we stop, we wait, two minutes of stillness, focus, resolution, almost a collective prayer. Silence deepens. Is this really wise? Then, when least expected, an abrupt, primitive, wild and raucous bestial snarl fills the ears and we surge forward in the grips of some vast and ever increasing power. Power, power, more and more power. That insane, precipitous acceleration. Buildings flash past as we've never seen before. Faster and faster and faster along a straight and deliberate trajectory into what must be the point of universal disintegration. Who cares if we all get blown to bits? This is the cutting edge of human achievement. So proud to be alive. Go for it my son, Go! Go! Go! Furious, frenetic, frenzied, frantic, screaming, straining, raging, death defying, roaring into some unknown vortex......then the sudden release, a strange moment of peace, an engulfing stillness prevails as the unthinkable actually happens. The earth falls away and we soar aloft in a breathtaking ascent. The sky accepts us, lifts us away and away on the wings of bliss, up, up and up. Sun, moon and stars have reclaimed us and Earth recedes, zooms rapidly out to become toy town, small and almost ridiculous. Did we ever really belong down there?