Heros

Just some thoughts on the plane that went down in the Hudson River yesterday...everyone survived, all 155 aboard. Looking at everyone standing on the wing waiting to board to safety made me think of the moments just before. I wondered how I would have reacted in those same critical and very few minutes.

A dear friend just the day before used the beautiful analogy of a soft cushion of air gently holding a falling leaf during it's descent to rest safely along with others on the forest floor. How prescient that might have been. Such a beautiful image brought forth from poetry perhaps served in some way in the safety of that landing.

Of course it was the skill, care and extreme positive energies of the pilot that truly brought everyone down safely. I read today that the pilot life's focus has been on safety and his studies on how crews react in crisis. It was as if by plan he was the pilot, and by grace, safely landed the plane in a place where it was designed not to land.

The pilot and the crew are heros but so too are those aboard the plane that chose to keep their head and their hearts and not give in to panic.

Would I have taken the hand of the stranger next to me and given him or her a gentle squeeze and looked into their eyes and said with mine "It will be OK, we will make this OK" or would I have been gripped with fear, frozen and unable to think clearly? I truly do not know how I would have acted.

I believe there were many people aboard that plane who chose to stay calm, giving and helpful. These were people who knew this was perhaps their last chance to make a positive difference in the life of another. There were others who experienced their kindness, some perhaps not believing another, through grace, could remain calm and helpful but accepted it nevertheless.

Everyone, absolutely everyone, survived; and everyone is changed, changed forever.