Calm Skies
November 21st, 2009 Posted in writingI get a little jittery when I’m on an airplane. I suspect most people do. But a few weeks ago, I felt very calm, not just because the stewardess was pleasant or there wasn’t any turbulence. Those helped, but what really did it for me was that I was sitting right next to a little old lady saying her rosary.
She held the rosary in her lap and as she moved the beads, they made little reassuring clicks. I guess I figured that God wouldn’t be impolite enough to let anything happen to this nice person — or us — while we were up in the air and she was engaging him in conversation.
Not very sound theology, of course, and it doesn’t have anything to do with aeronautical engineering or the laws of physics. But I enjoyed that flight a whole lot more than if I’d been seated somewhere else.
One Response to “Calm Skies”
By John Walsh on Jan 27, 2010
I too can be naturally jittery on an airplane – even though so far just my mountain bicycle sometimes tumbles me to the ground (ouch!). Equally, I do experience the serenity you speak of when someone close silently prays the rosary.
In my case, my wife’s perfectly silent rosary around the end of day always reassures me. It obtrudes as an inspiration to a form of shared prayer, although I may only soundlessly manage a single Hail Mary then.
As you allude, not very sound theology, but in those moments the soul is aloft into friendlier skies and among good company.