Poem for Sunday

Flying
By Richard Wilbur

Treetops are not so high
Nor I so low
That I don't instinctively know
How it would be to fly

Through gaps that the wind makes, when
The leaves arouse
And there is a lifting of boughs
That settle and lift again.

Whatever my kind may be,
It is not absurd
To confuse myself with a bird
For the space of a reverie:

My species never flew,
But I somehow know
It is something that long ago
I almost adapted to.

--------

Another (very appropriately for my afternoon) from this week's New Yorker.

On Saturday afternoon we went to AirFair 100 at College Park Airport, where the Wright Brothers tested their 1909 Military Flyer and which has operated continuously ever since. Though we've visited the College Park Aviation Museum recently, we haven't been to an air show there since the kids were very young, and we were amazed at how big the event has become -- there were military, rescue, and police planes and helicopters on display, tents with information about local aviation groups, parks, and historical societies, lots of food vendors, and retired space shuttle astronaut Joe Edwards as the main speaker. There were also fire trucks, mounted policemen, and inflatable slides, all of which were very popular with the children there. The airport backs up to the Metro and railroad tracks, so we got to see several trains as well as dozens of small planes and historic aircraft.


The American flag is flown in by a member of the Misty Blues All Woman Skydiving Team.


Another team member drops in with a "Smile" flag.


Greg Koontz of the Alabama Boys Comedy Act performs acrobatics before landing his plane on a moving pickup truck playing (of course) "Sweet Home Alabama."


Dan Buchanan performs hang gliding stunts. (This photo was taken through the windows of the College Park Aviation Museum, so the color's a bit distorted.)


Because this is the 100th anniversary of College Park Airport and the Wright Brothers tested their new designs here, several visitors in Victorian garb make appearances.


Bob Essell and Lisa Nelson demonstrate wing walking on their ultra light sport plane.


Kevin Russo takes a T-6 Texan into a dive.


Here's the start of Much Ado About Nothing at Olney Theatre (see below for details).

In the evening we had reservations to see Much Ado About Nothing, Olney Theatre's free Summer Shakespeare Festival production, set in 1930's New Orleans complete with Carnival masks. A jazz band played for the hour before the play, while people had picnics and staked out spots in the bleachers and on the lawn. It was a very entertaining production, but it started to rain before intermission and we left when the management suspended the production because the actors were slipping on the stage and there was lightning in the distance. We are getting up early to go to the Maryland Renfaire, so we figured we could go see the abbreviated Much Ado there if we can get to it in between Fight School, the Medieval Baebes, Shakespeare's Skum, and the jousts!