While the new aces argue about the runway, the old crew still knows how to land a plane.
What if you could hold one single moment from your entire life, just one, to carry with you forever? Which one would it be? The answer may tell us more about who we are than any story we tell ourselves.
There’s a photograph in your mind, faded, perhaps, but alive...a moment from your past that never quite lets go. Maybe it’s the day you first rode a bike, the night you whispered secrets to a friend, or the first time you saw your newborn child. Why do these moments cling, while others vanish without a trace?
What moments shape us, and what will our children and grandchildren hold onto in a noisy world?
That is my question today. What memories are we leaving to our new generation? Lockdowns? Climate Change? Global Warming? Guilt? What have we allowed to happen?
My thoughts today are about childhood. Innocence. About memory. About those treasured flickers from the past that we store ... as we age - approaching what some young ones call our “use-by date " – our minds retreat to these treasured moments. The ordinary days blur, but a single scene can shine with startling vividness. Why does our brain, this miraculous mass of cells, sift through 365 days a year to anoint one moment as unforgettable?
Picture your mind as an old pilot, weathered but wise, steering the plane of your life. This pilot knows the skies - every storm, every sunrise. With a trusty navigator by its side, it charts the course, dodging turbulence, landing smoothly. Sometimes, the navigator falters, lost to dementia or Alzheimer’s. Sometimes, a stroke severs the wires to ground control, leaving the pilot circling, unable to speak. But for most of us, this crew- pilot, navigator, control tower, flies on, doggedly saving the moments that matter.
There are certainly times when this pilot loses his greatest friend: the navigator. When this happens, the pilot flies blindly on and we see our friends and family fall victim to dementia or alzheimers.
Sometimes, the pilot and the navigator are well and truly in control, but there is damage in the wiring and a stroke victim is left unable to contact ground control – the pilot and the navigator just keep flying in circles around the airfield – and communication with the control tower is cut off.
For most of us, however, our old pilot, navigator and trusted friends in the control tower are doggedly performing their jobs and plotting our voyages with such experience and skill that the new up and coming “ aces “ are no match for our old mates at the helm of this aircraft we call our human body.
Like all old battle weary soldiers, we remember our greatest battles and our best moments when we flew missions of extraordinary brilliance.
We filter out the inconsequential things that should be censored or best forgotten.
We save those things that MATTER.
The events that formed our lives and our characters and our sense of self.
What have we given our children today? Lives of fear and confusion? Where they are being educated by transgender drag queens and told that they are not who they think they are?
But what memories will our children cling to when they are old? What guiding stars will their pilots follow? Are we helping them store memories worth keeping - or are we filling their heads with noise and confusion, leaving the navigator unsure which way is true north?
That babies are worthless, and, but for some quirk of our mother’s mind set at the time, we could have been deprived of the life we have valued, lived and that our pilot, navigator and control tower have kept safe for decades?
That they are bad because they were born with white skin? That being born in the country they call home has made them invaders? That they are on a planet doomed to destruction?
Australia’s kids have a shot at a bright future - it’s up to us to help them get there.
— Climate Council (@climatecouncil) July 25, 2025
Setting a strong climate target for 2035 means handing over the safest possible future for generations to come.#StrongerTargetSaferFuture #ClimateTargets2035 pic.twitter.com/HulU2L5CJD
We must surely see that the crew in charge of these little children’s minds are " confused " and are having a tough time keeping these little ones on course and on track.
I believe that children need to know that their pilot and navigator and control tower are not enemies but are part of their team. What do we want for them? Seriously?
We used to call it " Thought "
Children have the right to independent thought. The right to think happy thoughts and laugh and jump in puddles, play and imagine that they can fly. Some years ago, I had a visit from my great grandson. ( aged 7 but wears a size 9 .... he assured me that this was very, very important) and I asked him what was the most Important thing in his life.
He didn't say " climate change " or equal rights or Mum or Dad or having a roof over his head.
He simply said " I am. "
I asked him why.
He replied "That's what Mum says. "
And isn't he right?
image credit @pugglebro on Gab
Childhood doesn't last for long. And it won't be long before his self-importance is a distant memory.
I only hope that he remembers the time when his mother, grandmother and great-grandmother and great great grandmother believed that he was the centre of the universe.
Because, funnily enough, he is. Without his innocence and his belief in himself, we lose belief in ourselves.
Unless, of course, he grows up and becomes a politician. In which case, nothing will change.
So let the old pilots keep guiding, the new aces learn with delight and hope, and the youngest ones climb into their cardboard planes with arms wide and hearts full.
Because childhood is not a training ground for ideology ...it’s the launchpad for wonder, confidence, and joy. Knowing that they matter.
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