Life in the Afternoon - Part 9 - Friendship and Free will

Life in the Afternoon - much more than a story of soaring - and reflections of that on my life.

by P.K.Odendaal. 23 October 2011.

Part 9 - Morality, Free Will and Friendship.

Firstly, a not so short digression to introduce you to Morality and Free Will.

Every new Christian meets up with Mr. Legality from the town of Morality straight away, and every new Christian falls for the goods he sells. He is such a gentleman with such good manners and intentions. In fact - you will find no trace of sin in him, because he leads the perfect life. He lives according to a system of rigid moral and ethical rules and laws, and he thinks that his law abiding life will ultimately be awarded with the highest honours in Heaven, but what makes him really impressive, is the pretentious semblance of godliness he wears on his face.

Life in the Afternoon - Part 8 - The search begins

Life in the Afternoon - much more than a story of soaring - and reflections of that on my life.

by P.K.Odendaal. 23 October 2011.

Part 8 - The Search begins

On having heard the testimony of a friend, who told me that God is working today as He worked two thousand years ago with signs and wonders, I had to do something. I would not allow myself to miss the opportunity or possibility of proving this if it was true, or rejecting it if it was false - and I would do it the scientific way, because my training was strictly scientific and technical, and I knew how to prove or disprove a scientific hypothesis.

Life in the Afternoon - Part 7 - My testimony

Life in the Afternoon - much more than a story of soaring - and reflections of that on my life.

by P.K.Odendaal. 23 October 2011.

Part 7 - My Personal Testimony ... Freedom and Peace for ever.

I started this story off with the intention of writing it only in one or two parts, about a specific enjoyable soaring flight, but one thing led to another - as it usually does in life - and I am now find myself in Part 7, observing how the thought thermals of my mind developed around me. Yes, I was personally involved in this flight, but on reflection, it seems to me that I was also just an observer and an onlooker as this story developed and unfolded into much more than that.

Life in the Afternoon - Part 6 - Cry freedom

Life in the Afternoon - much more than a story of soaring - and reflections of that on my life.

by P.K.Odendaal. 23 October 2011.

 

I have inserted disconcerting paragraphs on freedom in the middle of this article recently.

Part 6 - Cry freedom.

I do not know much about crying and even less about freedom, but I can see that all over the world, people who are seeking freedom, people who have freedom, and people who do not know what freedom is, is Crying Freedom. I also Cry Freedom. but why?

Life in the Afternoon - Part 5 - Mapping

Life in the Afternoon - much more than a story of soaring - and reflections of that on my life by P.K.Odendaal. 23 October 2011.

Part 5 - Mapping.

Joburg ATC :    Alfa Sierra Kilo, no 'known traffic' to affect your flight up to flight level 150.

ASK21 (me) :   Copied, Alfa Sierra Kilo.

'Known traffic' - yes - that's the keyword and the reason why I wear a parachute when I fly a glider. If they do not know about traffic due to some pilot not calling them, it is not 'known traffic', meaning that if one of these unknown traffic objects hit me in mid-air by chance, it will not be their responsibility - it will only be me who will be doing the dying. I know that there are normally, over weekends, other gliders in this airspace who do not talk to ATC, so I wear a parachute in the not so unlikely event of a mid-air collision. If you go from A to B, the chances of a mid-air collision are very slim, but if you linger in one area going up and down and circling, it becomes a hazard that you must watch out for.

Life in the Afternoon - Part 4 - Masking

Life in the Afternoon - much more than a story of soaring - and reflections of that on my life by P.K.Odendaal. 23 October 2011.

Part 4 - Masking.

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes - and ships - and sealing-wax ...
Of cabbages - and kings ...
And why the sea is boiling hot ...
And whether pigs have wings."

From the 'Walrus and the Carpenter' By Lewis Carroll

Today I have had a flying start. It is a new day and a new flight and who knows what the flight of my mind might bring. My hangar neighbour, Willie, has offered to hold my wing up, while I start the take off roll, which enables me to have this flying start without the concomitant yaw and balancing act I normally have to do, starting with a wing on the ground, similar to the yaws and unbalance I had, when I started off my life without someone to hold my wing up.

Life in the afternoon - Part 3 - I have a flying start

Life in the Afternoon - a story of soaring - and reflections of that on my life by P.K.Odendaal. 23 October 2011.

 

Part 3 - I get a flying start ....

The previous part ended with my prayer being answered ... and myself reaching home.

My words flew up, my thoughts remain below

Words without thoughts never to heaven go. (from Hamlet, by Shakespeare)

My story began with the glider reaching two thousand feet, and I, cutting myself loose from the surly bonds of earth, by shutting down the engine, but to have come to that stage, I had to have had a flying start.

Life in the afternoon - Part 2 - I must return

Life in the Afternoon - Part 2 - A story of soaring - and reflections of that on my life.

by P.K.Odendaal. 23 October 2011.

Part 2 - I must return ....

I must return ... how many times have we used that phrase and never got to it,  or did it when we should not have?
I shall return .... the words of the prodigal son will echo in my mind forever.

I will have to return .... how many times have we taken the wrong road or the wrong turn-off?

I am returning .... how many people have started on this road leading from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City like Christian ... and turned back to their own destruction, or how many would have been discoverers, had they not turned back when they were so near their discovery?

I ponder these questions as I prepare to return, as I know I should, and that expeditiously.

Life in the afternoon - Part 1 - a story about soaring

Life in the Afternoon - a story of soaring - and reflections of that on my life.

by P.K.Odendaal. 23 October 2011.

Introduction.

I took this subject name from my favourite aviation writer Richard Bach. The name of one of his short stories being 'Death in the afternoon - a story of soaring'.

In glider pilot parlance, life is up here in the miracle of powerless flight and death is down there on earth - running out of lift and landing in a field somewhere when you can't make it back to base.

And on reflection - that is the story of most of our lives - and specially mine.

Can you show a little respect, PLEASE !!!

Can you show a little respect, PLEASE !!!

by P.K.Odendaal - 8 October 2011

 Respect, consideration and patience are vital virtues for the survival of mankind  and form part of the fabric which is known as civilisation - a fabric much more frail than we think.

Can you show a little respect, please ?  I would be the first to say : Guilty as charged, because I cannot suffer fools gladly and I get really rude fast when someone does not respect my privacy.

I detest people who do not respect my privacy and I treat them like fools - so I become like them.

A case in point. There is nothing that I detest more than a car watch. In South Africa we have these people known as car watches, but from my experience they are little more than arrogant beggars in sheep's clothes. There is no way they will watch your car, and if there is a car theft going on in the parking area, you will not even see one of them. At that stage they have all gone somewhere else for other pressing business.

What I especially do not like, is that they yell at me. When I get out of my car one or more of them start yelling at me from afar off, with words like 'hi sir', 'hello boss', 'hi' or some other barely recognisable threat. They want to get my attention because they want to milk me - so I pretend not to hear them and then they get into high gear with more violent threats.

The other thing is that they try to show you where to park. Nobody shows me where to park, because I park where I wish to, even if I have to circumvent the globe three times. If you fall for their recommendation on where to park, you will find yourself parking at the furthest end of the parking area, whilst there are many parking spaces closer to your intended rendezvous, but this empty block is the block they have been allocated and that they are milking and they want you to park there so they can milk you.

When you have finished shopping, the ordeal is to dodge them as they converge on you from all sides to get that tip for something they did not do, so they take up their position right at the back of your car, to make believe that they are making sure that you leave your space safely, but they are really there to prevent you from leaving your space before you have paid them.

They also have the audacity to stop you from driving unhindered around the parking area while you look for a parking space, just to let their client, who paid them lucratively for nothing, can get out of his space. Of course I have right of way, but they have the cheek to impede my progress contrary to the traffic laws.

I also wish to speak on their behalf as well.

If someone (the person who got authority to patrol the parking area) appointed me and did not pay me a wage, but instead, I had to pay him a wage, then I also would be very aggressive.

Secondly, I have seen some of them who are serious and look after you interests quite well, and I pay them lucratively.

And whilst I am at it, let me name a few other inconsiderate candidates. This is what they do :

·         They will stop you on the street to give you a present of some useless baking ware or insurance you do not need, and after fifteen minutes you find out they want to sell it to you at twice the price the shop asks.

·         When you stop at a robot, they will converge all over your car with useless merchandise and wave an fret and shout and make signs so that you will notice them while you pretend to look the other way.

·         They buy very expensive public address systems, install it in their cars, and irritate you from robot to robot with open windows blaring the chants of the devil.

·         They phone you from direct marketing centres on blocked telephone numbers to talk you into buying some useless holiday or item, but you do not get to know this until you have spent twenty minutes listening to them while they spin you a story of some inevitable end to the world which may happen this afternoon.

·         They use public address systems to call their ten proselytes, who know when prayer time is, and in the process irritate two thousand other people who detest their mode of waging active and passive war all over the world in the name of religion.

·         They sit in restaurants with their caps on, turned the wrong way round, so you mistake their back for their front - not that you would notice the difference.

·         They stand behind shop counters to serve you, whilst they do not have a clue what they sell and where it is showcased.

·         When you call in to large institutions or big corporations, they put you through to people at their organisation who they are sure know much less than they do of the case or of the organisation - which is frighteningly little.

·         They look at you with glass or bewildered eyes when you ask them a question about something they should know, and just recover their posture with blurts such as 'eish'.

·         They keep dogs in their backyard to disturb your sleep with all night long barking due to their fear, whilst their owners get a good night's sleep and does not even notice the barking of their own dogs.

·         They wait in ambush in deserted streets and buildings and on highways and byways, and even in your house while you are sleeping, to kill you just to take possesion of your car or cell phone.

·         They buy and sell people for financial gain in what is called bribery and corruption.

Naturally this irritates me a lot, and there is no antidote to this. Many times I wish to just get away from them, which reminds me of the guy from the navy who was so fed up with the navy, that he took two oars on his car's roof rack, promising to settle wherever they first asked him what those objects were.

I was brought up to respect all people regardless of class, gender or skin colour, but these irritants have taken that all from me.

And  ... by the way ... do you know where I can get a really loud and cheap PA system for my roof rack ?