Back in May, I wrote about how I had been given a nighttime airplane ride with my son-in-law as pilot. I have had the experience on commercial flights, too, and found it enthralling whenever we were flying low enough to see the patterns of lights down below. I wonder if I will have that chance again…
FLYING AT NIGHT
Above us, stars. Beneath us, constellations.
Five billion miles away, a galaxy dies
like a snowflake falling on water. Below us,
some farmer, feeling the chill of that distant death,
snaps on his yard light, drawing his sheds and barn
back into the little system of his care.
All night, the cities, like shimmering novas,
tug with bright streets at lonely lights like his.
-Ted Kooser
Gladsome Lights 
I hope you will, too!
My favorite is flying over open country dotted with shadows of fluffy clouds, thinking about perhaps a lone hiker or animal enjoying a beautiful day down below.
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In the 1950s, when the nights were much darker, commercial pilots on routes out of Chicago and Kansas City would divert to our little Iowa community at Christmas time. The town decorated the courthouse with so many lights that it was quite an attraction for people unaccustomed to seeing such sights.
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Wasn’t that sweet!
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We took great pride in knowing that sophisticated air travelers were visiting our town!
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Night flights give opportunity to see the shapes of cities. Some are strung out along a river or lakeshore and others are roundish clusters. One can almost distinguish more at night with the lights glowing than during the day. Lovely poem. In the vastness of the universe we create our own comfortable small worlds where we care for those nearest us.
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