Saturday, 26 October 2013

HIGH FLIGHT


HIGH  FLIGHT

Behold the cormorant in flight. It is a carnivore. Everything about it has been adapted over eons of time to fulfill its function of species propagation by feeding on fish. It is dominant in its chosen environment.

Search on line for stock photos of the Lockheed SR-70, Blackbird warplane and note the eerie similarities between the two machines, one of nature and the other of man’s creation, in flight.
Mach 3.2 at an altitude of 85,000 feet notwithstanding, the latter creation proved to be transient. The Lockheed was retired in 1998. But the bird in the photo continues to soar.

Enter Michael Campbell, the chief protagonist in the novel, CAPISTRANO.
He has fulfilled the words of  the wartime pilot, G. Mcgee in his poem, High Flight.

Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things 
You have never dreamed of…
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor even eagle flew-

Michael comes to dominate the environment he has chosen. He is the founder and driving force behind the success of Capistrano, the club for gentlemen in Metro Manila. And he wars with those who would unseat him from his throne.

His exploits model the musing of Alexander Pope when he wrote,

Man: the glory, jest, and riddle of the world.
Michael is everyman, yes everyman, and then some. Join him, laugh with him and cry with him and come to A. Pope’s conclusion,

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan:
The proper study of mankind is man.

CAPISTRANO IS AVAILABLE AT:

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