Living in another world

Sometimes it feels like I’m the only person in my own little world. Or, maybe
more accurately, I’m the only one bouncing from one world to another, and
another, where so little overlaps and there is a general lack of common
understanding.

Some people are known for one or maybe two things. Honestly, I don’t really
know what one or two things I’m known for. The problem is, there’s no single
me. I’ve often thought I have multiple personality syndrome, but that’s not
really the most accurate description. I’m nearly always the same me (though
I do, on occasion, do things out of character), I just live in many different
worlds.

But there’s an almost necessary disintegration that occurs when I go from one
world to the next. I don’t think it’s caused by raw lack of acceptance,
rather lack of understanding. Most people don’t really understand other
people who live in a world that they don’t participate in. A non-musician
pilot would have just as much ‘deer in the headlights’ look during a
discussion of odd time signatures or lydian modes as a non-pilot musician
would talking about shooting and NDB in the mountains or the ‘interesting’
phraseology a few of the Delta pilots use over the HF when flying the NATs
(no disrespect to Delta pilots in general, of course).

Having said that, I do have acquaintances in the aviation world who, for
example, are musicians. There are also a handful of libertarians in the
aviation world. And there are libertarians who are musicians. And there are
musicians who are Christians. And there are family men (dad’s, husbands) who
are Christians, and even a few musicians. And there are computer geeks who
are pilots. And there are libertarians who are computer geeks. It’s
possible to find people who really immerse themselves in more than one world.

But I have yet to run into anyone who fits three or more of those profiles
with substantial depth in each. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t claim to be
God’s gift to anything, really. I’m more of the jack of many trades and
master at none. For example, I’m not at the current professional level when
it comes to computers. And though I play jazz and Latin-jazz, I’m definitely
not ‘up’ on country, pop, oldies, and several other genres of music. But I
do participate in those worlds and so many more.

So here I sit, in my own little world – the merger of many other worlds,
looking out the window at the Frankfurt airport, enjoying the sunrise,
wondering just how many people understand all of me. Then I wonder if it
really matters.

So instead of cramping my brain over it (more than I obviously already have),
I’ll just enjoy the view. I’ll watch the airplanes land, take off, and taxi
around. I’ll enjoy knowing for myself what kind of planes they are, and
generally how they work. I’ll appreciate the places each of the crews came
from, especially those foreign airlines of places I’ve spent time (most of
them now are U.S. and German, but Singapore sits at the end of the row and
Alitalia just came in). I’ll have a moment of solitary satisfaction thinking
about the miracle that transpired last night as, once again, we assembled a
crew at the last minute from all over the world, and made another trip go on
time.

And then I’ll go home, love on my family, plug into our Bible study group,
spend an evening learning about recent origin science discoveries, and then
escape to the Monterey Jazz Festival for the weekend with my wife, having
woven myself through tapestry of interesting and beautiful worlds for just a
little while.

V-