Paper Airplane

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As a child, paper planes always amazed me. For a long period of time, as I remember now, I would transform any piece of paper around me to a paper airplane. I would be sitting in the class room,  probably 8^th or 9^th grade, I would make paper planes and chuck them out of the window. Then one day, I don’t know how, we found that we could chew the paper plane on its tip and then when it was a nice solid mass like a spit ball, chuck it up on the ceiling and it would stick. The kids around would be amazed. In a few minutes, there were several of these planes hanging from ceiling. After a while we would put on the fan and then all these would drop down.Ha Ha, that sight was such a delight!!

Paper airplanes were simple but effective in providing entertainment. There was no science, there was no logic..but there was JOY. The joy of that unpredictable flight path and seeing the airplane dive suddenly was unmatched. The celebration when it landed uniquely is even now vivid in front of my eyes. This simple crafted object, had the right measure of function and fantasy. And that was wonderful.... that was happiness, that was my childhood!!

When I look back, I wonder how perspectives change. We get more complicated, our thoughts are intertwined with many reasons and many possibilities, that we don't see the delight, the joy in these little things any more. Life goes on, but as I reflect back I see these little joys and paper planes in different ways. Those paper planes that soared were our souls in childhood. Free spirited and divine. We spoke our heart, opened our souls to our mates and dreams were made of these.

What was a piece of paper, became an airplane? The paper airplane was like the soul we are born with. Plain like paper, simple and with good intentions. As we grow up when we see an airplane, we think about Thrust, Force, Gravity, Physics behind it . When we do that, I realize that we have lost our ability to Wonder!! And Happiness is lost. It gets lost somewhere in the knowledge we have acquired over the years..and the ability to keep our thoughts simple..