I love dramatic good-news stories, and they can never happen often enough.
But sometimes they are also miraculous in their timing.
I’m sure I’m one of many bloggers who are looking at what is about to happen, and just happened, and trying to make some grand connection, as in, “Here’s what I’d say Tuesday just after noon if I were … him.”
So let me give it a shot… at the risk of focusing far too much attention on this connection and beating an analogy to … well, you know:
We are here today in what some might call a miraculous turn of events.
And others would say we worked hard to make it here, so it’s only logical.
Can logic and miracles co-exist? Of course they can.
They sure did aboard U.S. Airways Flight 1549 last Thursday afternoon.
A group of people who had nothing in common but where they were and a desire to fly where they were going were aboard that plane, thinking it was just another day.
At the helm, a pilot of much experience and training, well-respected, on a cold but clear day, going through the checklists, which no doubt don’t have on them “check for big flocks of Canada geese in the area.”
Flying, to some, is an act of faith, as is living. To others, it’s just a thing to get you somewhere.
But this day, this plane and those birds intersected in a path no supercomputer or aviation expert could have predicted with any certainty.
Those birds hit those engines, both of them, and blew them out – both of them – a flight attendant said it was as quiet as a library.
This at 3,000 feet over the Bronx.
The pilot with all that experience had a good clue exactly what happened, and his options were limited. The air control tower made suggestions – ones he rejected, knowing the great danger they would pose to folks on the ground, not to mention the people he was tasked with flying safely to their destination.
And so, he took the least unthinkable path – to the water – with so little time, he couldn’t throw the handy ‘ditch switch’ and seal the bottom of the plane.
No time – less than 4 minutes from bird hit to … well, we all know the story.
In a busy place where cameras follow seemingly every bird or Hudson River tugboat, a plane became a boat – and 155 souls on board, many if not most praying what they feared might be their last prayer, lived to tell the tale.
By all accounts, there was little if any panic aboard Flight 1549. Ferries and boats came to their rescue, and thankfully didn’t have far to go. The river, normally busy with boats, had been clear when the plane came down. There was a jolt, but no worse than some rough landings many of us have experienced.
The plane, full of fuel, didn’t burst into flames. It didn’t sink. It’s crew kept a well-intentioned passenger from opening a third, back door that would have let the water rush in.
A lot of things went right that day – and to separate the divine from the proper procedures, training and what one must make sure to add, the best in many everyday Americans would be missing the point entirely.
We are divine in our everday lives, if we just stop to think. It shouldn’t take a plane falling from the sky in miraculous fashion to remind us that God wants us to fly again.
Now, let’s see how much of what we learned last week fits what we’re here for today.
Let’s imagine, just for a moment, that we all are passengers on that jet plane – a plane that no doubt has seen it’s ups and downs, but is surely still airworthy – and unbenknownst to anyone snoozing through the familiar emergency lecture at the start, pointing to the exit doors, yadda yadda yadda – they’re about to learn it’s seaworthy too – in a pinch. That those seats as floatation cushions really do come in handy once in a while.
But many of us, probably most of us live our lives for granted – until we don’t.
Sort of like the millions of Americans, many of whom no doubt took their jobs, their homes, their everyday debt-saddled existence for granted – until they couldn’t.
So, when our airship of state gets into hot water, the people who live to criticize, analyze and place blame knock the pilot, the crew – everyone but ourselves. That’s no way to safely land an airplane, or get a country called U.S. of A. through some in-flight turbulence.
The doomsayers say we’re gonna crash, we’re gonna die. Others pray. And the folks up front try to stay calm, cool and collected as they choose between several not-so-great options.
They don’t need a perfect option, just one with the best odds of survival.
When they pulled that plane out of the Hudson over the weekend, they bottom was all torn and shredded – shredded metal on a plane full of fuel. Imagine what one spark would have done.
Miracles do happen. We can never be reminded enough.
But sometimes, just sometimes, God helps us make our own miracles – through training, wise choices, prayer and working together – as a bunch of people on a plane, who didn’t know each other from Adam or Eve.
But those who don’t believe the hand of God was helping put that series of blessed coincidences in line, like a line of lights on a runway, are fooling themselves.
Folks, we face some really tough challenges in the coming days, weeks, months and years. My critics deride me as the self-annointed ‘messiah’ who thinks he has all the answers and can talk any problem to solution.
But you, my fellow Americans, are smarter than the critics. You’re not looking for holy redemption from the White House – just someone who puts your interests ahead of the special ones, who does the very best he can – who is willing to change course and bear the wrath of those who claim that’s a wishy-washy flip-flop – who puts all his training and skills and, yes, oratory to the best use possible. And who levels with the American people, even if it means answering a reporter’s nasty question with nothing but the truth.
My friends, I don’t know if our bumpy flight the past couple of years has killed our engines, but I know we can soar again, to new heights, if we just believe in each other, and that with God’s will, we can overcome our troubles. It’s about having faith that the pilot will do what he can, but knowing it’s not all in his hands, or in God’s, but in each one of ours, as well.
A man who was elected to this job four times is one worth quoting, about fear being the enemy. Because fear begets fear, but hope begets hope. There are no magic solutions to our problems, be they education, health care, the housing or financial crisis. There is only hard work, listening to good people making strong proposals, and taking the best of those ideas and testing them out.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is your new captain speaking. It’s an honor to serve you and to know that, with the help of our fine crew – and all of you – we’re going to make it through these storm clouds and, with God as our co-pilot, fly higher than ever before.
So get those cameras ready – we have some mighty fine sights to see, up ahead, through the clouds.
Welcome aboard. Oh, and one more thing – sorry, but no more free in-flight lunches. We never could afford them. We were just fooling ourselves.
The party’s not over – not by a longshot. We just can’t make excuses and duck out before the check comes any more.
Leave it to Barney 