Well, it’s up in the air.
That’s quite a thing to say, isn’t it? It’s up in the air.
But if you think about it, the phrase is true of everything.
First, the meaning. To be “up in the air” means to be unsettled. Uncertain. The exact origins of this idiom are unknown, although it isn’t that difficult to understand. The phrase could have been based on something as simple as a coin toss. I mean, as long as the coin is still “up in the air,” the outcome is unknown. But, in general, it probably referred to the uncertain nature of when and where something will come down to Earth when it is up in the air. Like a floating feather, or a soaring falcon, or perhaps, a crashing boulder.
But when applied in its entirety, it could affect anyone doing anything. Because truly, our very next moment is up in the air. There may be a fair amount of certainty, schedule, rigidity, or presumptions in our lives. “I’m meeting Gary for lunch at 12:30 today.” It probably will happen since that is the meeting time. But we never know when a plane might come flying through our roof or when a band of crazy raccoons might take us hostage.
I only thought about this phrase because this day, June 27, 1923, marks the anniversary of something that happened up in the air.
Capt. Lowell H. Smith and Lt. John P. Richter performed the first aerial refueling up in the skies over Rockwell Field in California. What a thing that must have been. Flying hadn’t been happening all that much back then.
And in itself, aerial refueling is a dangerous process. It happens when fuel is transferred from one aircraft to another mid-flight.
They started using this a lot during World War II. Since then, it has been used during multiple wars to extend the range of aircraft on missions. It also helps to reduce the take-off fuel weight to allow more payload onboard.
On the very first occasion of this, Capt. Smith and Lt. Richter flew in a De Havilland Airco DH. A hose was passed down from the tanker aircraft, flown by two other lieutenants (Virgil Hine and Frank W. Seifert), to Smith and Richter’s plane.
So there it was. Up in the air!
But they accomplished their feat.
What a gas!
What a gas? Oh, that’s another idiom used for saying that someone or something makes you laugh or something is a great deal of fun.
But in this piece, I was merely suggesting that they were passing gas.
Passing gas?
Oh, wait. That’s another phrase…
This could take all day.
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“The mistake is thinking that there can be an antidote to the uncertainty.”
― David Levithan, The Lover’s Dictionary
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“As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.”
― Albert Einstein
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“You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.”
― Max Ehrmann, Desiderata: A Poem for a Way of Life
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