Religious a bit???? please drop me a line

[OnwardandUpward]

Hi all

I am going to break the golden rule.
Never discuss religion or politics!!!!!!

A little background.

I have taken 30 flights this year. I have been flying pretty much regularly since '99. SInce that time, I have one routine that I "religiously" follow.

Read Psalm 23. Bless myself with Holy water. Take Valium or Homeopathic remedy(Rescue), in the toilet just before boarding. Also in most European countries you can sign the Chapel book
I am Catholic and faith is important to me.
Day to day sadly no. In times of extreme stress yes.

Please let me know if this is a non-runner, and I will forever hold my peace!!

Btw. 2 flights last week, short 1 hour each way.
Outbound went great. Return got the jitters
Flying Tuesday again 90 mins each way

Chaz

[Passenger Mark]

Chaz,

Your post is fine. You are just expressing what you do to prepare for a flight, and that is great!

When we mean no Religion, we are speaking of trying to covert folks.

A year or so ago, we had someone come on a board and tell everyone they would not have FOF if they believed and accepted Christ. Now... that was pushing it. Then when folks showed their disapproval they went on to tell them that they were bound for the hot spot!

So... if that kind of stuff ever shows up, it will get thrown out. But sharing your personal habits to prepare for a flight is fine, in fact encouraged.

Thanks for sharing!

Mark

P.S. As for politics... We just stay clear of that altogether! YIKES!!!

[WillFlyToDisney2]

Chaz,

We all have our comfort methods when it comes to dealing with our fear of flying. Whatever enables you to get on that plane is great!

Me? I concentrate on how cute the pilots are. Hey, it works! (I usually only pray during turbulence!:pray )

Kelley

[Amelia]

I try not to miss church the Sunday before I fly and I always say a little prayer as we're going down the runway. It's all part of my preparation. Recently I was sitting next to someone that blessed himself as the plane took off and landed, so I know we're not alone. For me it just brings some comfort.

I did get upset in church a few years ago and almost E-mailed the minister. He was talking about himself and how he used to be quite nervous flying. He attributed it to a lack of faith. Fear of flying is a psychological thing and has nothing to do with lack of faith. I don't think people go around saying a person with a psychological problem like depression has a lack of faith. (At least I hope they're not.) I think it just shows how fear of flying is misunderstood sometimes. Amelia

[Strange333]

Just a little side note. When I became Catholic I got to meet the Bishop of the Columbus, Ohio area. (He is the most faithful person I have ever met!!!) We started to talking about flying and an interesting story came up... Several years ago he was flying his Cessna to Cleveland, for a meeting. He started having problems with the plane and the next thing he knew it was going down. While the plane was going down he "made a deal with God" that if he lived he would never fly again. (He chuckled as he told me this) But, to this day, some twenty years later, he has never flown again!!!:dunno

Lack of Faith leads to FOF...I THINK NOT.

Nich

[canoga]

....before each flight. I pray that my nerves will be calm, that the pilots will be attentive and safe, that we have a smooth flight, and that all air-passengers arrive at their destination safely. :angel

p.s. Kelley, I'm pretty sure you need a 12 step program for your attraction to pilots. If you find one, let me know. I won't tell you what happens when I spot a cute one all decked out up in his uniform. :blush

One time at the meet-the-pilot-to-confess-your-fear-before-flight, the pilot was so cute and had such amazing blue eyes, I didn't hear a word he said. He could have said, "I plan on banging the @#%$ out of this aircraft today" and I would have smiled and nodded like a school girl.:nod

[mkahanek]

I pray the same prayer before each flight. My prayer simply asks for God to carry our plane safely to its destination and to fill me with serenity and calm.

[noflyingfan]

That reminds me of a story I told many times on the other board. I read it in one of those little thingies in Readers Digest where people write in funny stuff that happens to them.

A priest was giving a sermon in church about worry and how pointless it is. He mentioned that most of the time, there's no reason to worry, that the things we worry about never even happen. At this point, a voice piped up in the back, "so, it works!"

[WillFlyToDisney2]

LOL Beth - I think you are right but for me it is the fact that these mere mortals (pilots) can control the very thing that terrifies me (the plane). Of course they do look SMOKING in their uniform! I think it's the hat... :ray

Kelley

[xiknal]

Nich, that's really an interesting story. I assume he meant (in his "deal") that he would give up flying his Cessna. Or does he also not fly commercially?

I think that fearful fliers sometimes make deals like that..."get me down on the ground in one piece and I'll never fly again!!" :nono In fact, there's an Indigo Girls FoF song "Airplane" in which a different sort of prayer and deal-making is featured--get me down alive and I'll be nice to everybody forevermore.

I have a friend who is a bishop of the American Orthodox (Old Catholic) Church. They are in communion with the Russian and Eastern Orthodox churches, and he looks for all the world like a very traditional rabbi in his black robes and yarmulke and never-clipped, long beard. But he also hangs out in jeans and T-shirts and studies Mayan and Mixtec archaeology, which is how I met him. He used to have a fear of flying, and he had long deliberations with God about it while continuing to fly scared. Then he decided, or realized (as he told me) that God had nothing to do with airplane disasters...that He neither caused nor prevented them, that that was all man's doing. And amid that realization, he beat his fear and now flies comfortably. I found that story very helpful. He was the person who went with me to the plane when I took my first flight in 13 years (visitors could go to the gate then, of course).

We take comfort and reassurance where we can, and what works needs no further justification. I don't think there is only one religious solution to FoF--there are many. And for some folks, there is no religious solution...but there still must be an emotional one.

Thanks to all in this thread for telling us your stories. :)

Barb

[spleisher]

For what it's worth, I have done the same thing. I think :pray is a very common tool in the chest when coping with this fear.

[graciecat14]

I always touch the outside of the plane as I get on and pray for everyone on board and everyone who has taken care of the plane.

When we start to take off I have little card with a prayer by Saint Patrick on it which begins "I arise through God's strength to pilot me..." not bad, considering it was written 1500+ years ago. I know if I get to the end of this prayer and we are not in the air there is a problem! Otherwise, I keep repeating it until the 10,000 foot ding or I stop hyperventilating, which ever happens first.

Becky

P.S. I work in a church and there are lots of faithful fearful flyers around.

[Debbielevis2]

Beth/Kelley et al

Sounds like me!!! Hubby's at 7:30 a.m. mass. every Sunday. I loll around a bit, but get up, dressed and have breakfast going when he returns.

When I DO get up early enough to accompany him, he usually asks me the following questions: 1) Are you flying this week?; 2) Is the baby (grandbaby) okay?; 3) Any news from Nicholas (son in AZ) that I don't know about? and 4) Flying NEXT week?? If I've recently flown, he asks, "Coming to say "thank you"??)

Do you see a pattern?

Don't get me going here. We'd need a whole new thread, a whole new Fear of --- Board!

We all know, though ;)

Debbie

[WillFlyToDisney2]

Wow - I do that too, Becky. I touch the outside of the plane! LOL One time as we were boarding I reached over and touched the plane and the guy behind me said "hey I do that too! It's good luck!" I was so mortified that he "caught" me. LOL

Kelley

[Jeff California]

I usually find myself praying that the FA's dont run out of beer.:cheers

[spiffyone]

Has anyone else heard that Indigo Girls song Barb is referring to? It's one of my favorites. You would die laughing listening to the words. My favorite line is...let me see if I remember this..."lying in my bed, which is in my hometown, which is on the ground, far from an airplane." There are other funny ones too.

The other great thing about it is the backup singers on that song - the Roches, who are a group in their own right - do these great harmonic things that sound like airplane engines revving up...

Great song. It's on the "Rites of Passage" tape. Did I say tape? I meant CD. I have the tape :)

:band

[WillFlyToDisney2]

Ooooh my youngest daughter LOVES the Indigo Girls. I'm going to check her CDs to see if we have that one. We pulled the girls out of school for a fun family trip to go see the IGs open for the Dixie Chicks in North Carolina last year. My oldest daughter was fascinated with the guitar tech and the myriad of guitar changes for the IGs. My sister and her s/o are huge fans too. I bet if we dont have that CD my sister does! Sounds like a fun song to listen to while flying.

:)
Kelley

[Huey]

" Has anyone else heard that Indigo Girls...."




Sorry Jo. Missed that one. :)

[Amelia]

I'm reading about what some of you think when you see the pilots. Here's what I'm thinking..."Oh my God, I'm old enough to be his/her mother." A few years ago, an off duty pilot in civilian cothes was sitting next to me. It was at the peak of my paranoia...right after 9/11. I didn't realize this "kid" was an airline pilot and when we began talking I started to explain to him why we weren't safe. ;) Then he told me he was a pilot for the airline. I bit my tongue just in time. I was about to say, "Oh my God...you're much too young!" I realized as we were talking that he must have been the same age as my oldest son.

I always tell my husband that I don't want anyone flying the plane who's younger than someone I've given birth to. Of course, as I get older the pilots seem younger and younger. In another year the pilots my age won't even be flying anymore. :( Maybe I'll retire from flying with them. :yippee (just kidding) Amelia

[LesliePHX]

Just some thoughts on this thread, I hope they aren't too dopey.

(1) I had some early Indigo Girls tapes and I really liked them, and I saw them in concert one time and I was blown away at the audience response to this lyric:

"And when I needed my mother and I called her
She stayed with me for days"

The audience cheered at that, which surprised the heck out of me. I mean, Indigo Girls aren't a goodie-goodie feel-good duo, they're pretty raw and edgy, but the audience cheered that lyric with the same enthusiasm you'd hear when a hard rock band makes a smirky reference to drugs. I thought it was interesting, couldn't figure out what to make of it. All these Indigo Girls fans cheering their moms? It still baffles me, but I loved that they did that. I feel the same way about my mom.

(2) The thing about making a deal with God that you won't fly again if he spares you: I've heard this before -- seems like a lot of people do it when they get scared on a flight -- and it strikes me as really odd reasoning. I'm not a Christian, but I respect the religion, and my understanding is that the Christian God has nothing against flying. If you really want to bargain with Him, assuming bargaining is allowed, you'd need to offer Him something more appealing than "I won't fly again." You'd need to say something like, "I'll be more kind to others" or "I'll go to church more often" -- I mean, really, if it's a negotiation, you gotta offer the other side something that MEANS something to them. Offering not to fly again is really just a deal with yourself, not with God. He doesn't care whether you fly again or not.

(3) Unfortunately, our doctors, our dentists, and our pilots all eventually become younger than we are. I don't like it either.

Leslie

[xiknal]

Airplane

Up on the airplane
Nearer my God to thee
I start making a deal
Inspired by gravity

If I did wrong, I won't do it again
'Cause I can be sweet and good and nice
And if I had enemies, they're friends
I'll hold on to my life with the grip of a vise

And I'm up on the airplane
Nearer my God to thee
I start making a deal
Inspired by gravity

That little spot on the ground is my hometown
I like to call it my home and it's sweet
I'd rather take a seat down there than a throne up here
Up above 30,000 feet
And I'm up on the airplane

I never should have read my horoscope
Or the fortune on the bubble gum strip
Saying what you think won't happen will
A great thing to read before a trip
On an airplane

Pilot says the big blue sky's like a swimming pool
Big fluffy clouds like a feather bed
But I'd rather have a real pillow underneath my head
Lying in my bed which is in my hometown which is
On the ground
Far from an airplane (my bed my hometown)
Far from an airplane (on the ground my bed my hometown)
Far from an airplane (on the ground my bed my hometown)
On the airplane (on the ground) (I'll be making a deal)
On the airplane (on the ground) (I'll be making a deal)
On the airplane (I'll be making a deal)
(I'll be making a deal)

:eek

[xiknal]

Les, I can relate to that line about needing one's mother and having her actually come and stay...I think that a lot of people--even hard core rock 'n' roll fans and so on--probably still idealize that sort of relationship even when it's far from reality, and when it's voiced by a streetwise group like the IGs--who don't exactly tippytoe around taboo feelings--it hits home.

I agree with you that it seems odd to promise God that we won't fly again--that it is more likely a promise we make to ourselves, with God as a witness. I also think there's more to those deals with God when we're up there in His territory; to some people (I was one) it feels like trespassing. Um, here I am, already trying to keep a low profile over some forgotten mortal sin from infancy (hmmm...must be when I pulled that flowerpot down into my crib and made a huge mess) or else a foul deed in a previous life :shocked , and what I don't need is to get spotted on His turf! Sounds crazy, but I had some o' this going on, indeed. It was so wonderful to get past it! :sunshine

[spiffyone]

Barb, I bet myself a special lemon ginger scone that you would promptly post all the words to "Airplane." I'm eating it right now :coffee

[WillFlyToDisney2]

Dunkin Donuts has Lemon Ginger Scones, Spiff??? Must be the "northern" menu as all we get are donuts, croissants and stale bagels. :(

Kelley

[xiknal]

Lemon ginger scone...sounds heavenly. I am sure God and our moms would approve...enjoy! :happyguy

[spiffyone]

No, kelley, now i live in boston, where they have other restaurants, though Dunkin DOnuts is still quite prevalent.

I got my LGS at a poofy-woofy pastry shop called "flour." One word. Not capitalized. Two-dollar scone. Ya don't eat like THAT every day.

spiff:hamster

[Amelia]

I totally agree with everything you said in point #2. I've made many deals like that with God in the past. I'm much better about flying now and all deals are off. :) I'll probably never be comfortable flying, but I'm not as paranoid anymore either. I now realize that at the peak of my paranoia none of my thinking was rational. For example...I spent many flying hours worrying that the people that pushed the plane back might have damaged the landing gear when they hooked up the tug to the front wheel. I was sure that when we touched down the landing gear would collapse. Many flights later it dawned on me that the wheel probably wouldn't have been any good for take off if it had been damaged. I also realized that I had never heard of a plane having this kind of problem. I can give many, many more examples of my paranoid thinking, but I'd be typing here forever. Amelia

[OnwardandUpward]

Just got a chance to read this again and it encourages me a lot.

I was supposed to fly today but my meeting was cancelled so I am on terra firma until January at least

Chaz