Virtual flight.

 

Virtual flight.

I try to live in the moment whenever I can. I don’t know the future and I hope it will be alright. Can I make things happen better than they will on their own? I wish I knew. Looking back, I also see a blank mystery. Stories appeared only a few thousand years ago when people learned to write on stones or clay tablets. There is a lot more that we are slowly discovering, which is difficult to interpret. It looks as if there were civilizations who could do what we yet can’t, and disappeared, leaving very little evidence of their existence in the dust of time. They were all over the world. Some ancient writing mentions them, but that is all. We find pyramids, underground cities, and large human settlements covered by the oceans. We know that not all our ancestors were primitive cave dwellers. Many advanced civilizations were destroyed and restarted to become our present civilization. There is some level of spirituality in most, if not all, humans. It is not material, but it exists. There is more to the world than what the eye can see.

In the old days, traveling was very hard, dangerous, and expensive. Caravans traveled on foot with burden animals and small armies for protection. Very few people knew exactly where they were going and fewer yet knew the way. A trip could last years and not everyone who went came back alive. However, it was the only way to learn about the world. Time went by and traveling on water gained popularity. The wind was discovered to be a source of energy to propel humans, cargo, and the heavy wooden ships that carried it all. Again, safety was an issue and weapons and marines were necessary. Large nations built navies and trained people to use them. Over thousands of years, technology improved, and those who were ahead built great wealth. It was the age of discovery. Maps were produced and methods to navigate improved. Some people even dreamed about traveling by air. This idea had to wait until we had engines to power flight. We had pictographs of aliens flying and the idea of God’s angles having wings wasn’t new.

In the second half of the twentieth century, I flew a jet to Canada. In the next fifty years, flying over our world became commonplace and people in the developed world took advantage and learned to fly for leisure. Computers were improved and a new option was born. We can stay at home and see what is happening anywhere in the world. I do it all the time now, seeing through the lenses of modern cameras what is happening. Today the news is humming about a foreign object shot down over the Yukon and the Prime Minister is basking in glory over authorizing the action. I am wondering if he considered the possibility that it may have been an alien craft seeking help in our world. The PM likes to be in the headlines while a sensible Alberta country girl is running the country successfully, not demanding attention.

I don’t enjoy waiting in airports, sleeping in hotels, traveling in taxis, and the rest of what people consider a novelty in traveling. I would get no pleasure from being in a tiny cabin on a cruise ship, even if they invited me to dine at the captain’s table or lounge by a pool in a floating hotel. I don’t relish gambling in famous casinos or seeing busy dusty spots where long-ago history was made. A dirty path to a historic building for me is just that. A dirty trail traveled to see a building that I don’t care about. I grew up in such places. I hope that those who travel enjoy it for all its worth. I am interested in the news and the people who have fewer choices in life just trying to stay alive. I go on my computer to Ukraine. A beautiful country with great hard-working people. Their place on earth is being destroyed by a tyrant who wishes to rule them against their will. On the computer, I follow the people of Turkey and Syria demolished by earthquakes and war at the same time. From there, I follow people in Pakistan abused by their own government and lost all they had in floods. It brings me to people in California who lost all they had to fires and floods, much the same as our brothers and sisters in British Columbia. I visit First Nations in other parts of Canada whose stories I don’t need to tell but are obvious to anyone who looks. South America has millions of folks under governments installed by powerful nations who use their suffering to make money and the same in Africa. The far east doesn’t escape my computer gaze. Conditions in the Philippines are far from great and in India, a billion and a half people try to make a living. A fraction of the population is well off and the rest….

My traveling over the world takes hours and all I see are the highlights. Personal little tragedies are not visible to the cameras feeding computer travel but exist. A far north settlement in Canada doesn’t look much different from its equal in Russia. The world of humans provides great wealth for a few and a struggle for the many to stay alive. There is a feeling of unfairness and a looming danger of another civilization ending.

I fly over to a place I know well. The Crowsnest Pass in Alberta. A quiet mountain community where no one is rich but all live well. The weather is mostly nice and people are honest and kind and I thank the Lord. It’s possible.