A Bag of Magic Dust
I send my four children a letter each month which includes a personal story from my days in the military. This is one of those stories.
When I was in flight school at Fort Rucker, Alabama, I remember during one of the ground classes before we actually started flying that an old instructor pilot told us 'pilot-trainees' that all pilots were issued a bag of magic dust. He said that during our flying careers, we would sometimes find ourselves in dangerous situations. Sometimes those dangerous situations would be caused by our own stupidity or due to a poor decision we made, and other times the dangerous situation would be due to no fault of our own. After all, flying is a dangerous profession which is why we pilots got an extra chunk of money each month called hazardous duty pay. The old instructor pilot then told us that when we found ourselves in a dangerous situation during flying (whatever the cause), we could reach into our bag of magic dust, sprinkle it around a little, and get out of the situation alive. Then the old pilot told us that we had to be careful using the magic dust, because none of us knew how much dust was in our bags. If we relied on it too often, one day we'd reach into our bag during a dangerous situation and find the bag was empty. We'd find we used up all our magic dust, and we'd now have to pay the consequences of whatever dangerous situation we were in.
Moral of the Story: Life is like flying. We're human beings, and we often do things that put us in dangerous situations. Often, whether due to blind luck or a guardian angel watching out for fools, we get out of that dangerous situation without having to pay the consequences. But..., like pilots, if we rely on our bag of magic dust to get us out of trouble too often, sooner or later, we're going to run out, and then either we or someone we know is going to get hurt. The more often we do dangerous things or make unwise decisions, the more likely it is our luck (i.e., our bag of magic dust) will run out. So, the trick in life is to reduce the number of times you have to go to your bag of magic dust by reducing the number of times you unnecessarily take risks. Life is full of risks, but we can often do things to reduce the risk. That's just my opinion. Take it for what it's worth!
When I was in flight school at Fort Rucker, Alabama, I remember during one of the ground classes before we actually started flying that an old instructor pilot told us 'pilot-trainees' that all pilots were issued a bag of magic dust. He said that during our flying careers, we would sometimes find ourselves in dangerous situations. Sometimes those dangerous situations would be caused by our own stupidity or due to a poor decision we made, and other times the dangerous situation would be due to no fault of our own. After all, flying is a dangerous profession which is why we pilots got an extra chunk of money each month called hazardous duty pay. The old instructor pilot then told us that when we found ourselves in a dangerous situation during flying (whatever the cause), we could reach into our bag of magic dust, sprinkle it around a little, and get out of the situation alive. Then the old pilot told us that we had to be careful using the magic dust, because none of us knew how much dust was in our bags. If we relied on it too often, one day we'd reach into our bag during a dangerous situation and find the bag was empty. We'd find we used up all our magic dust, and we'd now have to pay the consequences of whatever dangerous situation we were in.
Moral of the Story: Life is like flying. We're human beings, and we often do things that put us in dangerous situations. Often, whether due to blind luck or a guardian angel watching out for fools, we get out of that dangerous situation without having to pay the consequences. But..., like pilots, if we rely on our bag of magic dust to get us out of trouble too often, sooner or later, we're going to run out, and then either we or someone we know is going to get hurt. The more often we do dangerous things or make unwise decisions, the more likely it is our luck (i.e., our bag of magic dust) will run out. So, the trick in life is to reduce the number of times you have to go to your bag of magic dust by reducing the number of times you unnecessarily take risks. Life is full of risks, but we can often do things to reduce the risk. That's just my opinion. Take it for what it's worth!