Welcome to Friday’s reflection.
Today, I reflect on the habits we carry from one part of life to another, and why moving forward sometimes requires us to stop.
Someone recently posted a little story in the comments beneath an article, and I have been thinking about it ever since.
The first test pilot scheduled to test the first jet plane was assured that jets don’t require propellers.
He returned to the tower without getting in the plane, asking if he might have just a little propeller, anyway.
I have no idea if that actually happened. It may simply be one of those stories that survive because they say something true about us. The pilot has presumably been given a perfectly good explanation of how a jet engine works. He is willing to consider this new form of flight, but he would feel happier if the aircraft still had something attached to it that he recognised.
It’s only a little propeller.
Maybe the story caught my attention partly because I worked in aviation before I became a vicar. My job involved finding and moving parts for aircraft that were stuck on the ground and unable to fly. It was a high-pressure environment. When an aircraft needed a part, somebody had to locate it, work out how to get it where it was needed and keep things moving.
I loved it because there was a problem, an action and an outcome. Do this, and the aircraft can fly. You felt that satisfaction of completing the job, then moved on to the next problem.
There were good reasons for that urgency. An aircraft sitting on the ground was not where anybody wanted it to be, and crucially for the airline, it was very expensive. That is why no expense was spared to get the part to that location.
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Reflecting on this, I honestly think I was a bit like that as a vicar.
