Thin Green Line

At the time of this writing, a website is allowing me to watch the real-time progression of a Continental Airlines flight from Houston Bush-Intercontinental to New Orleans International.  A thin green digital line plots across a blue map of the country pixel by pixel.  I'm watching it because my wife is aboard that Boeing 737 making its way to New Orleans.

I suspect most people who monitor flights on websites like these do so for practical reasons.  A husband may monitor to see how much time he has to finish a surprise meal for his wife after she's been away on business.  Or a manager ensures that his employee will land in time to make the big meeting.  Or perhaps a nervous flight instructor watches to see his newly endorsed cross-country student succesfully complete a training flight.  I can tell you with certainty that I have been all of those people.  While it's true that I watch tonight to observe my wife's flight safely touching down in New Orleans, there is another set of thoughts floating through my head.

In additon to my wife's flight, many other Continental flights are represented on my monitor by small green airplane icons, each making their own thin green line as they fly closer to their destinations.  And as I stared at the screen, I envisioned a captain and a first officer in the flight deck of each of those airplanes.  Each having endured a path of of their own toward the job they now have.  I wondered what sort of thin green line their individual careers plotted before they were allowed to wear a Continental Airlines pilot uniform.  And just like that, I had a mild epiphony.  I realized that people do this all the time.  They have gone through all of things that I'm going through.  The question then dawned on me:  Why not me?

I actually saw myself flipping the switches of a Boeing -- and I believed it would eventually come to pass.  The clarity and realism were powerful.  And that's the part that can be difficult at times.  I mean simply imagining something is one thing, but forging it to reality can often be so daunting that it seems somewhat out of reach or "pie in the sky".  But tonight, much of that doubt cleared, offering me a glimse of the blue skies on the other side.  I imagine someone one day sitting at their computer looking at my flight to anywhere.  They'll watch me and they'll see the thin green line from behind my airplane.  It will trace the path I've taken -- and the distance I've gone.