Flight.. A New Awareness (1973)

[Music] We live on a planet so full of wonders that a million years wouldn't make us tired of its beauty. Its faces and moods change so quickly that almost before we see them, they are gone. [Music] Every moment is a new experience and we are often thrilled by very common things. The sound of the sea, the freshness of morning, the quiet of a forest glenn. We share the earth with too many things to ever become lonely. There are so many kinds of plants and animals that we have not even counted them all. Yet each is a miracle in its own right. Each is a clue to the purpose and meaning of life. [Music] In spite of this loveliness, we are still dissatisfied because there is one direction we can't go up. We are chained to the surface by gravity, able to go no higher than we can jump. So we look at the sky, envy the birds, and long to fly. [Music] There is a divine madness that makes a man follow his dream even when common sense tells him it's impossible. We are of course not built to fly like birds. We have no feathers, no wings. Our bodies are too heavy, our muscles too weak. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] But dreams are sometimes stronger than reality. And in the end, who is wiser? The man who accepts the impossible or the one who attempts it? The man who is satisfied with what he has or the one who risks everything for a vision. [Music] When you're flying, you can go in any direction. You're no longer confined by roads and fences. Flight gives you an exhilarating freedom and a whole new perspective of the earth below. [Music] Oh, [Music] you Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] From up here you realize Realize that nothing is isolated. Every pebble, every plant, every breath of air becomes interrelated. Movement of water, the drift of clouds, the changes of weather are no longer different happenings, but all part of the same flow. [Music] Now you see the whole picture and what you see is that Earth is a single living organism more fragile and more beautiful than you ever imagined. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. The world is different in another way too. We always thought that the earth was one big garden because we lived in the valleys and plains where our food grew. Flight has taught us otherwise. The garden we thought stretched from horizon to horizon turns out to be a few patches of green on a large bare rock. We are beginning to realize that life has only a fragile hold on this planet. [Music] Oh, [Music] oh, oh. [Music] [Applause] People are afraid that technology will destroy the fragile earth that flight has shown us. But does technology need to be destructive? If its purpose is to refine and perfect, couldn't all machines someday be as simple and beautiful as the one I fly? Sail planes can climb as high as large jets, yet burn no fuel. They can remain a loft for as long as we can stay awake to fly them, yet destroy no resources, cause no pollution. They are tools, yet so perfectly designed that each has the grace and beauty of an eagle or a dragonfly. [Music] flight has become as natural as walking or swimming. I have every right to be up here. The same updrafts and winds that sustain the birds sustain me. I'm not attacking nature, but experiencing it in a new way. I've not changed the sky. It has changed me. [Music] [Music] The earth has taught us all we know. We became what we are because we had the seas to cross, continents to discover and mountains to climb. Perhaps nothing we can imagine is impossible. The important thing really and try [Music]