A little Icarus in all of us

There's something unnatural about humans' ability to fly. Which may explain why we call it "taking flight." It's like we've snatched something that doesn't belong to us.

Imagine trying to explain to the men who built the railroad that we would one day ride in a steam engine in the sky. They would ask us how we got the rails to be up high.

For many of us, flight is all too natural. We've never known life without it. But next time you look in a mirror, ask yourself which part of your body was designed to help you fly.

Our legs let us walk, our arms can help us climb, our lungs barely allow us to swim. But nothing in our genetic makeup is there to aid us in the air.

That's why our chief complaint against the planes we've built is lack of legroom.

So next time you fly, remember that you're breaking the rules of your own biology. And if you're response is that we're operating within our creative capabilities which give us the right to do anything we can, remember that you're still "taking" flight.

And that there's a little Icarus in all of us.