I Am a Part of All That I Have Met

I sit in the departure lounge at Brisbane airport waiting for the sleek machine bird to take me south. I write at a public computer terminal into which I put some coins, giving me web access. I arrange letters and words, in the best manner I know so that my thoughts are conveyed to you. You know I live, where I am, and what I think by the sequence of the words.

It amazes me, modernity.

"A Fool's Paradise? Well, why not? There is a place for Folly."

Yesterday, north bound, I sat in the girth of the flying beast as it suspended above the clouds, carrying me to the funeral of my much loved Auntie Joan. I wanted to share the grief of my cousins, Ann and Stephen, whom I have known all their lives.

I wondered at the magnificence of design of the A320 airbus. The jet engine. An historic milestone in Man's conquest of nature. Come fly with me. Where did it start? Way back. In the cave. God's first words recorded at the start of the Bible, were, "Let there be light." Perhaps man's first conquest of nature was the torch or lamp, overcoming darkness.

I look out over tarmac and watch QF651 take flight, skywards majestically, Perth bound, taking Joan's relatives over mountains, deserts, plains. Home. After two days traversing two great cities; of concrete, steel, glass, freeways, snarling traffic, touchscreens, crematoriums, we are homeward bound.

"I am part of all that I have met."

I know what Ulysses meant.