Wild Blue Yonder

I remember standing in the front row of Miles’ promotion, and hearing Robert MacArthur Crawford’s swelling composition of  The U.S. Air Force play for the first time. Made famous by its opening lyric Wild Blue Yonder, the verse depicts the thrill of an echelon ascending towards the sun into a vast horizon of blue.

As I stood there holding our first child, a surprising surge of emotion overwhelmed me, and I felt the weight of tears in my eyes. The song epitomized the universal aspiration of greatness that all humans share: to do something daring, something meaningful, something honorable. 

The feeling of patriotism the anthem elicited mirrored the new found devotion of my own maternity as I looked down at the squirmy toddler I was trying to contain in my arms. Suddenly, our familial mission to protect what is vulnerable and valuable came into focus. We, too,  have something daring, something meaningful, something honorable waiting on the horizon, and we are flying out to meet it.