View from 25,000 feet-High Flight

Having spent years of my life flying, I am surrounded by the stone here in the clinic which reminds me of the view of the earth from about 20-25,000'.

Our nation was laid out by surveyors and often the settlers were only miles behind the surveyors. That accounts for the square patterns laid out basically aligned with true north. Many of our nation's founding fathers were surveyors, including George Washington  and Abe Lincoln. The profession was as important as physician and attorney in those days.

Anyway, as I wait, I am surrounded by the view and memories of flight. There is no way to explain it to non-aviators.

A WWII Spitfire Pilot from the Battle of Britain made a good try when he wrote a favorite poem of mine and my father's.

High Flight Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air. Up, up the long delirious, burning blue, I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace Where never lark, or even eagle flew - And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod The high untresspassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee No 412 squadron, RCAF Killed 11 December 1941