This week should be a trying experience for anyone who respects the mechanics – let alone the underlying premise – of our democracy. With its promise of an unrelenting barrage of bombast, bullying and belligerence, the spectacle at the center of current affairs could prove profoundly dispiriting.
Life, however, has a way of putting things in perspective and reminding us of what counts. And few things can better illustrate that than one person doing something well. For while we tend to focus on the dramatic, in the hope no doubt of something entertaining, reminders abound that what really matters rarely makes good television.
As reported in the Denver Post, on Saturday morning a 74-year-old pilot named David Shenk was taking off from Longmont municipal airport in Boulder County when his single-engine aircraft lost power. He had flown only about 100 yards before landing in a nearby field. While his plane, a 1946 Aeronca Champ, was damaged, Shenk sustained only minor injuries. No one else was hurt and no other property was damaged.
“He was able to miss the tops of cars and come in just under the power lines on the other side of the road,” said a spokesman for the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office. “It was like threading a needle. It was actually very good aviating.”
Was this heroic? No. It was good flying, but pilots are trained to expect emergencies. And given Shenk’s almost 50 years experience, he may not even have found it all that exciting.
Still, we love heroes and we dote on them. With that, however, we get not only the real thing, but posturing buffoons as well.
What Shenk demonstrated was something else, something a great many Americans can share and appreciate. What he showed was not heroism but competence.
Shenk simply did what he had to do – like parents who never forget their children’s jackets, like workers who show up rain or shine because there are mouths to feed, like most Americans who feel no compulsion to proclaim their own greatness.
It was a little thing, but a timely and welcome reminder of what matters.
