Newspapers

Lindbergh Flies Alone

Although I now spend my time living and writing about Social Media, when cut my veins still bleed ink. Newspaper ink.

Newspapers are often called the first draft of history, but they also occasionally rise to the quality of poetry.

This is The New York Sun’s editorial on Lindbergh’s remarkable, courageous and foolhardy solo flight across the Atlantic. (This is The Guardian’s coverage at the time, nice article)

Keep in mind that this editorial was written on deadline with the kind of materials that allow for little revision once the hot type is laid down.

My excuse for posting this? I relate to it on a number of levels, not the least of which that I have twice crossed the Atlantic in small vessels. I sailed a boat from North America to Europe with five other people when I was 19. A few years ago two friends and I flew a small aircraft from Paris to North America. (We had only a few hours flying range, which makes for a challenging hop between Iceland and Greenland.)

LINDBERGH FLIES ALONE

Alone?

Is he alone at whose right side rides Courage, with Skill within the cockpit and faith upon the left?

Does solitude surround the brave when Adventure leads the way and Ambition reads the dials? Is there no company with him, for whom the air is cleft by Daring and the darkness made light by Emprise?

True, the fragile bodies of his fellows do not weigh down his plane; true, the fretful minds of weaker men are missing from his crowded cabin; but as his airship keeps its course he holds communion with those rare spirits that inspire to intrepidity and by their sustaining potency give strength to arm, resource to mind, content to soul.

Alone?

With what other companions would man fly to whom the choice were given?

The New York SUN, May 22, 1927

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