Gaining Perspective for Safe Flights and Healthy Country
“Clear left” says the captain. “Clear right” says the first officer (co-pilot). These words are uttered by pilots communicating with each other when taxiing their aircraft on the airport, double checking to avoid the path of other aircraft, vehicles, tugs as they cross runways and taxiways, and get around in congested terminal areas. Each pilot has a better perspective of their respective side of the airplane and depend on the other pilot sharing their perspective (view) in order to gain a broader perspective that allows for making better, more accurate decisions for the movement of the airliner. Makes sense, right?
Imagine for a moment a pilot on the left side of the airplane only being concerned about their side of the plane, and not considering the perspective of the pilot on the right side of the plane? And similarly, the pilot on the right side of the plane not being concerned with what the pilot on the left was seeing? It would be idiotic for the pilots not to communicate and gain the perspective of the pilot beside them.
Now imagine the two pilots having their respective (left / right) political ideologies not talking, not sharing perspectives and not wanting to know and understand what the other pilot was seeing. A pilot deciding to make decisions based only on their limited perspective (view) of an otherwise much broader perspective that is needed to make good, safe decisions for safe operation of the aircraft. The risk of the aircraft hitting another airplane would be substantially higher. The lives of everyone on board, and possibly elsewhere (other aircraft, vehicles on the ground, people on the ground) would be in perilous danger. Well, welcome aboard USA Politics flight #2024.
A line in the book “The Meaning of Marriage” that most stood out for me stated: “90% of breakups occur due to a lack of understanding”. To expand further, this lack of understanding is largely due to a lack of communication. The lack of communication can be attributable to a lack of effort, commitment, and poor communication skills. While the book is about marriage, essentially the same notion about communication / breakups applies to most relationships – workplace, friendships, and even relationships with fellow Americans from a political standpoint.
Safe flights and successful, lasting marriages don’t happen by accident. Pilots are intentional about sharing information / perspective to avoid (plane) traffic conflicts to get 45,000 flights safely to their destinations every day. Spouses (in successful marriages) are intentional about consistent communication of potential conflicts and resolving them before they have the potential to cause grave harm to the relationship. Date nights, regular communication, praying together, playing together – help couples see, be aware and address the litany of matters they encounter daily. Perhaps you have your own unique ways to nurture relationships with your spouse, friends, neighbors, fellow Americans. Feel free to share if you so desire!
My biggest observation / take away in life – at the airline encounters with coworkers, passengers, management personnel, and at the farm – perspective of employees, customers, and animals thus far is recognizing how perspective, or rather lack of perspective, impacts animal behavior, people as individuals, and collectively as a society. Just as humanity is impaired by greed, lust, sloth I consider people’s, including my own, inability to consider their own limited perspective relative often to a (much) broader perspective that ought to be seen / considered, being just as potentially harmful to them, and/or others. Just as one has to consider the consequences of acting on lust, excessive greed, excessive rest / laziness, one ought to consider both their own (limited?) perspective and those of others when making / acting on decisions. Just as a pilot’s failure to consider the perspective of the other pilot, a person’s failure to communicate and consider the perspectives of others is inviting a similar, potentially catastrophic fate.
A single gunshot ignited the revolutionary war. The assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 set off World War 1. When conditions are right, it doesn’t take much to ignite an inferno. Sparks from down power lines in overgrown brush can ignite wildfires. Whether it be providential or sheer lucky coincidence, recognizing the conditions ripe for civil war and a bullet coming only 1-2 centimeters away from potentially igniting such a war at the recent Trump rally, I hope this serves as a wake-up call for each of us to be thinking of ways to gain perspective and be intentional about what we can do to help save our country from a civil war, and our planet from a nuclear war. Failure to do so is a regret We the People will go to our graves with if we do not act while we still can.
United WE Stand. Divided WE Crash and burn.
Mark