Lest we forget…
Sick of hearing about the decline and fall of America? Hie thee to the Smithsonian Channel and the series called Aerial America. One thing corporate ronin get to experience that most don’t is repeated flights across the vast lands between the coasts. Sometimes at high altitude, sometimes in puddle jumpers on short commuter flights. It’s all beautiful.
Contrary to your road and highway experience it’s not all strip malls, McDonalds, and Exxon stations. Why the automobile and its romanticism is dying. Too often the car view is soul destroying. Not that there aren’t still thousands of miles of back country roads that are worth driving, with views that would pop your eyes and strain your noses, but we’re all being funneled somehow into a concrete tunnel that hides our own nation’s glories from us.
America is still beautiful. And amazingly still largely rural and parochial, in the best sense, meaning, where you are from in particular still matters in the grand sum of the nation.
The Smithsonian Channel, more than any other elitist cable offering, succeeds in remembering that the United States of America is not just Washington, D.C., home of its museum, but the entire expanse of experience, history, achievement, travail, architecture, and natural wonder that constitutes the home of all of us.
Aerial America is a shot in the arm. It doesn’t judge. It doesn’t preach. It remains true to its altitude. It shows beauty of all kinds, remembers sorrows and losses, but retains a lyrical tone of admiration for the home we all share. I cannot fault any individual episode. I can only fault the omissions so far — e.g., New Jersey, the most topographically diverse in the entire union — but I trust they will bring home that bacon someday soon.
If you’re feeling down and buried under images of destroyed Detroit and La Raza Los Angeles, watch this show. America has always been about the land and its healing power. This show, with very few exceptions, will make your heart beat again. It’s on Netflix if your cable provider doesn’t offer it. And, no, I’m not in anyone’s employ.
Love. It.
I don’t know if you know this, but flight is in my blood. I’d get my pilot’s license if I could afford it, but I’ve been skydiving, gliding, hot air ballooning, anything I can do. But it’s not just about the sky, it’s about the ground, the beauty of the earth and the seasons, the glory of America.
One of the perks of this job of mine, for all of its downsides: I managed to get them to purchase a quadcopter, of which I am the sole pilot. I like flying it by remote control well enough, though it stresses me out — lots of money airborne and subject to winds and obstacles. But the real reason I implored them to get it is the glorious footage of the landscape. It’s not so low that it looks like land-based shots, not so high that the details are lost. When shot right, the video from it can be magical.
I can’t share the footage that I’ve shot so far because it’s owned by my employer, BUT I have been granted leave to bring it to Iceland tomorrow. If the weather holds, I should get some amazing stuff. And this spring, I’ll use it in our beautiful part of the country, it should be incredible.
Until then, here’s some footage from one of them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfoLYTKObiU
I can take videos like these, I just need to get to the locations. A future career, maybe? We’ll see what the FAA ultimately says about them.
Good for you. Unlike my dad, I’ve always been ground-bound. Speed for me has always meant cars, motorcycles, boats. The sky has not lured me except in my dreams, where I can soar, fall, and bounce up again. Go for it. Can’t wait to see your videos.
Gorgeous video, Lake. Your trip to Iceland should be spectacular. Enjoy every moment.
Do watch The Sea. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen.