On a Wing and a Prayer

I have a knack for planning things.  Part of it goes back to that lesson in details that I learned working with my Dad on a hot summer day.  When my son was in Boy Scouts the Scoutmaster, who is now a very good friend and kayaking buddy, saw early on that I was good at planning things.  He asked me to take on the task of Committee Chair and help keep the Troop as a whole moving in the right direction.  One of the biggest jobs I had was planning trips for the Troop.  I never had anyone question my plan.  Everyone knew that when the day to leave came, every single detail would be carefully documented and no one would have to worry about scrambling around at the last minute trying to get things together.  Everyone knew that the trip we were about to make would be a great one and because of all the planning ahead of time we would BE PREPARED for the unexpected should it come.

Everyone knew, except for me.  I may have looked calm, cool and collected on the outside, but on the inside I was at the controls of a plane flying through a thunderstorm at night with fuel leaking from a hole in the wing and lightning flashing all around.  I always planned, planned, planned and did some more planning for every trip, activity or event we did.  Everything looked good on paper and the other leaders in the Troop were in awe of the detailed plans that I put together, but I always worried.  I worried that I had forgotten something.  I worried that something unexpected would happen and I wouldn’t have a contingency.  I worried that a three hour tour would turn into us being marooned on a deserted island.  It took me a while to realize that all that panic and worry is the reason we had some great adventures where everyone had a wonderful time.   

We never had anyone get injured beyond a few scratches, bumps and bruises.  That could always be attributed to the fact that when I start building a plan, it always begins with safety.  Safety is an important key to a good plan and if you begin with that as your first detail, the rest of the plan will fall perfectly in place.  Now don’t get me wrong, some people go overboard with safety.  I know some people that get so obsessed with being safe that they take all the fun out of trips.  You can’t have an adventure without some risk.  It is hard to paddle a kayak or carry a backpack if you are all covered in bubble wrap and can only go to places where the ambulance can pull right up to you in an emergency, but those people are a story in themselves best left for another day.   

One of my favorite jobs of being the Committee Chair in the Troop was sitting on Eagle Scout boards.  We always had prepared questions to ask the Eagle Candidates and there were two questions that I always asked every candidate;  What was the hardest thing you did while in Scouts? and What was the most fun you had while in Scouts?  More often than not the answer to both of those questions was the same.  I have heard boys recount how hard it was to hike uphill all day long lugging a 25 pound backpack, but then they would finish the story by telling how much they enjoyed sitting on a ledge at 3000 feet looking out over the valley as far as the eye could see.  I had one boy say he thought he was going to freeze to death the night we camped in Uwharrie with the temperatures in the low 20’s, but then he recalled remembering waking to a blanket of pure white and having to hike back through virgin snow.  He said it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen and he never looked at snow the same way again. 

Listening to those young men tell how the trips that I had planned were the hardest and best times they had ever had made all my planning and worrying worthwhile.  Things always seemed to fall into place.  I won’t say we never had any glitches, but because I had such a good plan, we always had a contingency.  More often than not we ended up making trips on Plan B.  No one ever knew the difference unless I told them.   

Tonight I sit here at 10pm behind the controls of yet another plane flying through the dark and I see lightning in the distance.  Seven hours from now I am off on another amazing adventure with 20 other people depending on a plan that I have been working on for the better part of the last year.  I have packed, unpacked, repacked, unpacked and repacked again.  I have checked every detail over a hundred times.  It looks great on paper, everyone is in awe and I have a Plan B, and C and D, but that lightning looks bad and I am franticly looking out at the wings for signs of dripping fuel.  I won’t feel comfortable until I can see the lights at the runway nine days from now.  When the wheels finally lock down and we are feet dry again, I can let out a huge sigh of relief and start planning for the next flight on a wing and a prayer.