About Sharing and Not
Post 201:
The chief end or meaning of life, one could argue, is to find as much happiness and fulfillment as one can. It sounds noble enough. There are the folks that say there is no fulfillment and no means in which to achieve it, but little secret, those folks are what we old people call sticks in the mud.
Good times. That’s what it’s all for. Whether people admit to it or not, they’re all looking for good times. How they achieve said good times is the rub.
I just came back from Wisconsin. There’s an annual event there where people fly thousands of their own planes to one airstrip to hang out with other pilots and basically just kick it.
Talking about planes.
Drinking beer.
It’s not crazytown hedonism, but people really have a good time. An entire subculture is on full display, from the person with casual interest in aviation to the sharks trying to sell you a fifty-million dollar jet.
It’s a real event. The biggest in the world of its kind, I believe.
Why do I bring it up? Because people are generally happy when they fly in to this thing. They love airplanes and everything surrounding aviation. You can see it on their faces. It’s enough for me to confirm that, for one week, these people are nearing that secret of secrets that I began with—the meaning of life.
Here’s why I think the gathering of pilots and aviation fans is a good example of good times. Aviation is, for the most part, an individualistic endeavor. If you’re in your plane, there’s not a lot anyone else can tell you. The only things ordering you around at that point are physics and the amount of gas in the tank.
So it’s personal.
Only, personal is great until it’s not. At some point, one needs to share how awesome it feels to be so alone, to be suspended above the bustle. One needs to bustle about, in fact, to achieve this.
So it’s both. If you have something awesome and keep it to yourself, the good times can’t be maximized. I say be greedy enough to share. See you after.
