I started a new rowing program today. I could after gone back to the city program,
since they've gotten rid
of the Evil Coach, but I'd still have some of the same other problems, like
never getting any feedback because they spend their time working with the worst
rowers. And Rudder and T2 want to row singles a lot, and with Egret rowing with
the city, I wouldn't have many chances to row the double. The other local program,
the Rio Salado Rowing Club, has a new coach who seems to be fairly together, and
is trying to rebuild their women's competitive program, so I decided to give that
a shot. This morning, I rowed a double with a girl from ASU. Not bad at all for a
first row together. We mostly did drills, so it wasn't too strenuous, but that's
not a major problem.
Anyway, yesterday I did a 2000m piece and cut
20 seconds off my previous best, so I'm still gloating. I rank 27 of 42 in my age
and weight group on the
href="http://166.82.35.96/sranking/rankings.asp">Concept II World Rankings
which isn't too bad, considering even most lightweight rowers are much taller than
I am.
Outside rowing, I'm a bit upset by this news about the 15-year-
old who flew into a building in Florida. They found a suicide note in his pocket,
so it was intentional, which doesn't surprise me because it's just not that easy
to fly into a building by mistake. Into the ground while trying to land, yes, that
I can see, but buildings don't just pop up in front of you. I see how it could
happen: typically, when you take a flying lesson, the instructor sends you out to
do a preflight inspection of the plane, then joins you before you get in and taxi
off. This kid just jumped in and took off without waiting for his instructor. (I
think you can take flying lessons at any age, but can't solo until you're 16.)
It's not even the fact that the suicide note expressed sympathy with
bin Laden that bothered me; disturbed and deluded teenagers are certainly no new
thing (neither are disturbed and deluded adults, of course). What worries me is
that a boy taking flying lessons wanted to kill himself. Look, you absolutely
cannot learn to fly without not only a fair share of intelligence, but an
even greater amount of self-discipline. You just can't. And this kid was air-
struck enough to be washing planes in trade for lessons, which is generally
something you don't do unless you love airplanes. Richard Bach once wrote an essay
about inviting the troubled son of an acquaintance to go up with him. The boy
never showed up for the flight, possibly because when you're a fifteen-year-old-
rebel, any opportunity that comes to you from your mother doesn't seem like much
opportunity at all. Bach just wanted to pass on the gifts of his own instructor,
to see if this one fifteen-year-old could be reached through a learning that
begins with, "Now, this is what we call a 'wing',", goes on through flight, "which
for me was challenge, was I dare to you survive alone in the sky, and I offer you
inner confident quiet if you're good enough to do it, and if you do you'll have a
way to find who you are and never be lonely again," and that never
ends.
So here, in Florida, we have a boy who did show up for that
first flight, who was enthralled enough to do drudge work just to get to touch the
airplanes, to get to go up once up, and who was at least partway on that road to
an "inner confident quiet", and to the respect one pilot gives another. And it
wasn't enough for him. He killed himself. I don't know whether he had love in his
life, but he had not only a parent dedicated enough to drive him to the airfield,
but a chance to be around others who loved the same thing he loved, and that's a
powerful kinship. Respect, something to do, and something to learn -- what more
could he have wanted?