Ascend

June 26, 2016

What is there to say, there is so much to feel. My father. Would I say that he would sing me Edelweiss. And For it was Mary, and sang it in a way that I thought he wrote it just for me. That he taught me about rip tides, and currents, how to find sea glass and ride the waves.

Or that he taught me how to block and throw a punch, always watch their eyes he would say, they never lie. Taught me the box step and fox trot in the kitchen with a radio playing in the background. Self defense and dance, both equally important skills in life.

That he had a mind like an encyclopedia and could name and recall facts at an astounding clip, truly the mind of a genius. That he shared stories of saints, and family members, and the lore of Grace O’Malley the pirate queen. How he taught us the Greek alphabet and Latin verbs, and was a health enthusiast long before it was in en vogue. That he loved classical music and it would play at dinner along with candles, and please and thank yous, and may I be excused, grace before and after meals. That he shared his faith with us and would take us to shrines and churches all over Philadelphia. That he loved kayaking, celestial navigation, and aviation, and shared his love of the skies with us, would have us wave to pilots as they flew above as he would call out models and engines.

One of my earliest memories is being on vacation in Cape May NJ. My mother summoned us to the backyard to wave to my father as he flew overhead, the time orchestrated. We played in the grass in the backyard while we waited and then he came, in flight. He circled the house a few times, and performed tricks, flying so low that we could see him, see him smiling cocooned within that gorgeous winged creature he loved so much. And then he was off.

That is how I picture him now. In an airplane, circling us, watching over us, waving to us from above.

Always watching over us, ever as he ascends.

High Flight

John Magee

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 wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.