Categories: Odd bits & pieces, Travel, Writing Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 15 Comments

Walking on aeroplane wings and other preposterous ideas

So I’m in an aeroplane. We are thousands of feet above mother earth. I look out the window and read this little gem printed on the wing…

‘Do not walk outside this area’

Oh really? Why ever not? I’m so glad they put that out there, because you know – I was just about to head out to stretch my legs…

After I recovered from a severe laughing fit, I got to thinking. That’s pretty much what we writers do all the time. It’s craziness to get out of an aeroplane and walk on the wing. Its also craziness to spend hours, days, months, years! at the keyboard, producing hundreds of pages that we hope – yes, HOPE! not know, hope – will snag the right persons attention. And yet we do. Because it’s what we’re built for. We do it because we hope our words will make a difference inside someone along the way.

It’s a good thing to hope for!

So I say to you (and me) today:

Walk outside this area!

Run

Fly

Soar

WRITE!

Disclaimer: I’m sure some of you, my tech boff buddies, will feel the urge  to enlighten me as to why they print that daft sentiment in that particularly daft place. I’m begging you to leave me wallowing in my ignorance this time. You’ve got to agree, it’s just so much funnier this way. 

Comments (15)

  1. Dianne- An excellent analogy! I would like to know if you can walk inside the area, which looks as though it’s still on the wing?

    1. Jen-it’s ridiculous, isn’t it?! All the areas around the dire warning are on the wing… You can’t walk on any of them, not if you’re sane, anyway!

      1. Loved this blog. In fact it is the exact thing I said to Lori as we left the states for Africa! So funny. We laughed as well! lol Sherri

  2. Bugs Bunny knows why —- that’s where the Gremlins are !

    Great post ….

    1. Aaah, now why didn’t I think of that?

      Thank you, so nice to share a forehead slap moment with some of my favourite people . 🙂

      1. ROFLOL … that was one of my favorite episodes …

  3. Nice to see you back blogging. Missed you .

    The nomenclature on the wing, in truly a foreign perspective, warns aircraft maintenance personell not to walk outside the designated area of the wing,usually marked with a yellow or red border as areas outside that border are not strong enough to take the weight of a foot.

    Gives you confidence as to the strength of the wing, yes?

    Interestingly , you have that writer’s mental ability to reason and ponder and incorporate what you see into an interesting article, that I can relate to.

    Cultural differences: In the Brit double-deck buses, there’s a warning placard above the windows: “Please do not allow your arms or legs to extend beyond the windows as injury or death may result”.

    In New York Subways, the signs read: DON”T REACH OUT THE WINDOWS
    On US Aircraft, the placards read: NO STEP where you cannot step.

    Thanks for a preponderance of ponderous pontifications.
    There.. that’s my poet’s take today 🙂

    Good to see you 😉

    1. But JZ… the warning is repeated upside down… does that mean the only safe area to walk is BETWEEN the two warnings?!!! Holy cow, you have to be thin to work on planes 🙂

      And I won’t even start on the fragility of those wings… thank goodness we are having this conversation AFTER my 2 x 8 hour flights. PHEW!

      Gosh that had me giggling… so what they mean is, don’t wave from a bus – you could die! BWAHAHAHAHA!

      Love your pontifications. Good to be back!

  4. It is scary and a bit like stepping into the wild blue yonder. That Publish button (for me) requires that I screw up the guts to just do it each Tuesday. I get “into” the story, the research, the photography/construction/cooking. The excitement builds, the shaping takes place…then the Publish button looms and the self-doubt rolls in. 😉 Maybe it’s just Humility laying hands on me??

  5. Brilliant! 🙂

  6. What I’ve got to wonder is, why restate the warning upside down so that it can be read on the far side of the boundary? If you’ve reached the point where you’re reading it right-side-up, you’re already in trouble!

    1. My thoughts exactly!

  7. Bear Grylls would so walk outside that area, if for no other reason than to figure it all out for the rest of us – and then do a discovery episode on what to do if you find yourself outside the lines on the wing of an aircraft… while the rest of us chomp popcorn in the comforting glow of our telly and cringe at the thought of being on that wing in his place. Of course, he could ask an aircraft engineer, but where’s the fun in that?

    I guess in the same way, life is a different experience for everyone. I’m sure there are guidelines, and everyone has their own flavours of wisdom, but sometimes wing walking is the only way to know for sure!

    That said, I think it’s so cool that the world gets to hear our life experiences. It’s so cool that the days of having to be uber famous or even dead to have the ideas in your head appreciated by others are over. Thanks for sharing 🙂

    1. XXX

  8. lol I like this Dianne very good you have got it.

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