Special Brief-Form Post #12: The Marvels of Human Engineering Meet Nature’s Splendid Inspiration!!

/in /by

I am pleased to post the 12th of my new GBH Brief Form Posts to my website (Less than three-minutes to read! Not including the brief videos). I tend to get a bit long-winded with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So I will publish the brief Posts regularly.

The Intersection of Human Engineering and Nature’s Inspiration

 

I attended the 2023 TN Air Show at Smyrna (Nashville area) Saturday June 10. I did not anticipate finding a Nature connection, yet one emerged with great clarity: The Marvels of Human Engineering Meet Nature’s Splendid Inspiration!

Rather than pontificate with weighty narrative, allow me to present three brief YouTube videos (and two photos) that I posted this week and a few words about each.

My 20-second video captured three Blue Angels as they rose into the sun-aura of a cumulus.

 

I’m reminded of the stirring words of WWII pilot John Magee’s poem 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 sun-lit silence.

Hovering 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 nor 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.

I included the poem in my Dad’s eulogy. A Pacific theatre WWII Army Air Corps veteran, Dad carried the poem in his wallet until the day he passed. I watched the Blue Angels with tear-filled eyes. Twenty-seven years deceased, Dad stood with me.

 

This 40-second video from Saturday afternoon recorded a Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II racing across the flight line, then lifting vertically among the cumulus before appearing to float softly against the backdrop of the cerulean blue and white of an early summer afternoon.

 

Again I felt Dad’s spirit soaring both within and beyond me, tears remaining.

 

Finally, this 22-second video captured a Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, capable of Mach 1.6 at altitude. This high performance aircraft appears to hang in the air as it passes among the cumulus under the cerulean blue of an early summer afternoon, once again combining the marvels of human engineering with the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration of Nature.

 

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts to a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. Through the presence of Dad’s spirit, the power of flight that he loved, and Nature’s abiding beauty, magic, wonder and awe, I:

  • Put out my hand, and touched the face of God!

Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!

 

NOTE: I place 3-5 short videos (15-seconds to three minutes), like the one in this Post, on my Steve Jones Great Blue Heron YouTube channel weekly. All relate to Nature-Inspired Life and Living. I encourage you to SUBSCRIBE! It’s FREE. Having more subscribers helps me spread my message of Informed and Responsible Earth Stewardship…locally and globally!