re-read

Antoine de Saint Exupery’s Flight to Arras.

    I just read Antoine de Saint Exupery’s Flight to Arras. This French reconnaissance pilot, his navigator and gunner accept an assignment they know will give them less than one in three chances of surviving. All three know France is losing their war with Germany and that the information they gather will probably never reach the chaotic central intelligence to do any good in planning. Yet they accept with a mild, “Very good, Sir.”

     St. Exupery, author of Wind, Sand and Stars, describes his thoughts during lulls from attack during the flight and how his musings allow him to grasp his connection to the long, tangled lines of refugees. Once home to base, battered but safe, the pilot walks in lonely silence unraveling the strands he has come to understand. His insights give me constructive clues as I try to understand what is happening around me now: Acceptance, brotherhood, sacrifice have come to mean little as we have lost knowing we are part of something larger than ourselves and settle for the limitations of self.

respect comes hard

respect comes hard

when money is valued

when those who gave time and health

to serve others are deemed ‘suckers’

respect comes hard

for those who do not honor the sacrifice

by those whose lives are then given

in love to care for the damaged

wind-animated stars and stripes

  awing, what a piece of cloth can say

curling, whipping upwards like a flame twisting

unfurling to full banner in the wind

silently relating history and sacrifice

pride, hope, people striving for better

extending white and red

as though to reach for freedom for all

showcasing stars, that, like celestial bodies above, shine on all below

long may it wave

            mjNordgren  7/4/2022  Blue house, Lincoln City