Fly Away Home

I apparently saw Fly Away Home in theaters when I was little. I don't remember seeing it in the theater, but I have had a soft spot for it all my life. So last night, it was on really late at night and I stayed up to watch it.
Mom went to bed, our friend of the family goes to bed, and I'm all alone in a dark living room. Just me and the movie. And then my brother comes home.

"What are you watching?" he asks.

"Fly Away Home."

"Is it a sad movie?" He gestures to his face to show that I don't look all right.

"No, but I always c-cry at the end." I gesture to the TV to show that a teenager leading her flock of geese in a small plane to a reservation that'll be destroyed for development if she doesn't show up is the most moving thing ever.

Did I mention she flies the last leg by herself because her father crashes in his plane? And then she has a crowd of people banking on her arrival at the reserve? And she doesn't even know the way save for the quick instructions of her dad and the frantic motions of some ladies on a street in a small town. And you know how far she's come from the girl mourning her mother to being the mother of a flock of geese. And her father had just told her she's like her mother who didn't let anything get in the way of her dreams either. Seriously, it's enough to make anybody weep.

Here is the song played in the final scene. Just this alone is enough to make me cry.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond

I wasn't surprised when the dark colored 4-door was quickly on my back bumper.  At first, I glared at it thinking it would tailgate me.  On a back country highway, I was usually the one tailgated because I liked to look at the scenery.  Besides, hardly any cops are on these kinds of roads so everyone else feels obligated to blatantly ignore the speed limit signs.  In any case, this one car backed off once it realized I wasn't going to go any faster.

 

The passing lane came and it was the one who went into the next lane about the same time I almost turned on my blinker to switch.  These people were impatient.  But I let them and stayed in my lane anyway -- being the last person in a line of cars.  Unfortunately for them, they didn't get to pass anyone else, so now I was the one looking at their back bumper.

 

I didn't see the writing until we passed through a town and stopped at a light.  It was written in some sort of specialized paint -- contrasted enough to see it up close but unreadable at a further distance.  That writing lifted my spirits a little more.  One would have to be crazy not to smile at it.  It's endearing, unexpected, and shows great kindness towards the strangers that read it.  I almost expected a swear word at the end, but there wasn't.  Replacing the expected was the unexpected word that was what really caught my attention.

 

"Shine on you crazy diamond"

 

I tried to get a picture, but I'm sure I creeped those people out when I whipped out my camera and tried to get closer to them.  I let them go and made note to write about it later, whether in journal or blog or someplace else.  So now I’m telling it to you, because I think you deserve it whoever you are.

 

So shine on like the diamond you are, and pass it on to those who need it.