Let’s Go Fly A Kite Kite Flying Is A Simple And Wonderful Pleasure
We are now into that singular time of the year when one can earnestly tell others to “go fly a kite” and get away with it. Traditionally, this is a simple and simply childish activity of youth. Which is probably just as well. When adults get ahold of something as simple as kite flying, they just naturally want to set upon it with official rules and organizations and designer kites that need National Weather Service data to be flown in.
Left in children’s hands, however, the flight of a kite is a wondrous thing. Recall for yourself how awesome it was to watch the gentle curve of the kite string ascend out of sight. Yet at the same time feel the pull of that itty-bitty paper diamond dancing in the blue beyond. Not a pulling away, mind you, but a collaborative tension between kite and flier to reach even higher heights and ever more graceful movements.
As an exercise in consequences, a child can learn firsthand what effect a little jerk at one end can cause at the other - as well as experiencing the emotions that come and go with it. Like the angst and panic you feel as your kite takes a nose dive into the very top of the tallest tree in sight. And the elation, moments later, of seeing it climb back up and out again.
Often, the goal of a flying day was to see just how far out you could get a kite before you had to go in for supper. I remember playing out one ball of string, then standing on the end while tying on another, after another, after another. I subsequently remember standing on the hill long after dark, still reeling from the experience. Which, aside from my aching forearms, was pretty cool. Flying a kite at night is really a surreal experience (although that’s not exactly how my father described it at the time).
Other times, we spent the day on a shorter tether holding aerial “dog fights.” After two or three kites had reached a sufficiently similar height, we, the flight commanders, would race about beneath them attempting to force our kites to assault and pepper the other combatants. The ultimate victor, of course, was the one who could keep his kite aloft while sending all others to the terra firma below. Most often in the melee, however, two kites would collide, burst into flames and come crashing to the ground intertwined.
Actually, that was only in our imaginations. In reality, the kites wouldn’t burst into flames until AFTER they came crashing to the ground and we set them on fire.
We set a whole field on fire like that one day. Took us the rest of the afternoon to stomp it out. But it was either that or call in our parents and the fire department. Neither of which seemed attractive options at the time.
When questioned later about the smell of our clothes and the condition of our soles, I think we lied and said that we’d been smoking. Which, at the time, was more socially acceptable than setting brush fires. My, how times have changed.
Speaking of change, I remember buying kites for 19 cents at the nearest dime store. Although I recall it somewhat tentatively because it makes me sound like those people who fondly recall when bread was a nickel. Meaning I’m ancient by inflationary standards.
So anyway, while a store-bought kite is swell, there is also something to be said for constructing your own. Namely that your kids will become way bored with the project and have moved on to computer games well before you’ve snapped even one dowel rod in half and had to make another trip to the hardware store.
Ultimately, the important thing is not what the kite is made of, but whether it flies. Once you get a kite “up there,” you send a signal for all to see that there is someone “down here.” Someone who cares enough to send up a beacon, a beam, a symbol saying you have your feet firmly on the ground - but your spirit, however briefly, inhabits the sky. xxxx