And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never Lark, or even Eagle flew -
And while with silent lifting mind, I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
"High Flight"
The centuries-old cathedrals that dot the globe are a testament to the strength of will of those who conceived them, designed them, and labored for decades, even centuries, to build them. Although the logistical demands of such monumental works have been simplified with the advances of technology, we have not been content to simply build "easier" cathedrals. Instead, we have sought to push the envelope of human achievement, creating new challenges for ourselves--bigger, taller, more innovative, more beautiful. And we have gone beyond architecture, applying the same urge for greatness to invention, exploration, discovery. We have refused to believe that there is "enough" knowledge, or "enough" achievement. The impulse of human history has been, "ever upward." Excelsior.
This past Tuesday, an unspeakable crime of terror and destruction was wrought against the people of the United States and against some of our monuments to achievement. But the plain truth is that the real targets of those who seek only to destroy remain untouched--as, indeed, they would be no matter what the forces of evil had tried to do. For the greatness is not contained in the works, but in the simple fact of the quest. The faith is not contained in the structure, but in the act of building it. The spirit is not imprisoned in the monument, but is expressed through its creation.
We were created to be fitting companions for God. To paraphrase Pascal, our wretchedness is the wretchedness of a deposed sovereign, who has once known greatness and now seeks desperately to find it again. And so the wonder and majesty of our heroic works is simply this: that having been overwhelmed by the wonder and majesty of the works of God, we are not brought to the point of hopeless despair, but rather to the point of seeking to feel, if only for a moment, some small portion of the satisfaction that must be His when He looks upon His creation and sees that it is good. And so, while we cannot bring form from chaos by an act of the will, we can perform such works of creation as are open to us. I can perform such works of creation as are open to me.
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