High Flight

Back in ancient times television was broadcast over the airwaves and was only on until 1:00AM.  At that magic hour the local station would air a signoff message before shutting the transmitter off, leaving the TV showing only the irritating static we called "snow."  A favorite piece was called  High Flight, which showed a silver military jet dancing across the sky as the narrator spoke these words:

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence.  Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand
And touched the face of God.
Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee, Jr.  RCAF
Killed December 11, 1941

Viewers watched this many times and often knew the words by heart, but it was too compelling to turn off.  Closeups showed the pilot as he fought the glare of the sun and flew among the clouds.  When the deep, rich voice says, "Up, up the long delirious burning blue" the sleek airplane spirits up above the clouds to the sound of moving orchestral music.

It's great imagery, especially the part about the pilot putting out his hand and touching "the face of God."  These words are spoken with emphasis while the music transitions to a reverent male chorus whose singing is punctuated by bells.  It was moving to see the pilot in the place mankind has imagined God to be for thousands of years.  As the poem says, he's in a place of "high untrespassed sanctity" which is certainly the kind of place where we expect to see God.  The signoff offered a comforting thought to take to bed:  the idea that someday we will touch the face of God.

There was an implied message in the airing of this piece and the roles of science and technology  in making it possible.  It was this:  no matter how advanced mankind becomes, God is real and He transcends everything.  The man in his airplane didn't challenge God - he stood in awe of Him.  It was simultaneously humbling, uplifting and comforting as it validated the faith of most Americans.

In the pre-cable days there were three major broadcast networks and High Flight could be seen on all of them.  Now the networks never sleep and there's no need for signoffs anymore.  But one has to wonder, with the hundreds of commercial networks today, how many would dare to air High Flight if they ever did need to sign off.

High Flight can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzQYd_INSOg&NR=1&feature=fvwp

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