Fly higher

Hello friend—you’re receiving this email as a part of morning reading, a daily reflection on the parts of life worth living for that you signed up for sometime last year. I've got a laundry list of additions, designs updates, and website pieces I want to make, but ultimately, I just wanted to bring this back. Thank you for reading, and a very happy New Year. 

Fly HigherJanuary 24th

Good morning, friend.Thousands of years ago, story swapping around some drunken campfire or perhaps looking for an easy moralism to tell kids to act more like grown-ups, someone somewhere dreamed up the first vestiges of what would later be written down as the legend of Icarus. It goes something like this:There’s a guy named Daedelus who is trapped on an island because he’s very smart and wasn’t afraid to let everyone around him know just how smart he was. He has a son, Icarus. Mom isn’t in the picture. At least not in this one. Neither Daedelus or Icarus allowed to leave the island. So Daedelus dreams up a plan: he uses wax to glue together great wings, and sets out to fly from the island to the mainland with his son.(While we don’t know precisely when this was supposed to happen, it feels reasonable to guess this all happened before March 15th, 1967, the date the internet says Southwest Airlines was created. So the whole wax-on, feather-off thing very well might have been the better option than trying to fly economy). Daedelus tells Icarus that the wings will hold—but only with care. If Icarus were to fly too low, the surf would damage the feathers. And if he were to fly too high, the heat of the sun would melt the wax of the wings—and he would plummet. Today, we tell his story as a warning shot across the bow of flying too high in life. Which is good, and fair. But consider: Daedelus never called in the flight to the aircraft control tower.Never laid in a flight plan and route. He never even put his tray table up or returned his seat to the full upright position. So that voice in the back of your head? The one saying to lay back, keep cool, don’t fly too high? It was probably very helpful once. Critical, even. Kept you alive at a key part of your life.But listening to it now? Treating your current self as if it had to live by the rules you needed 10 years ago? Well, it’s possible that’s about as wise as taking flying advice from someone who doesn’t know what electricity is. Icarus said don’t fly too high—maybe it’s time we found out just how high you can go?After all, the king of Crete won’t be out to kill you if you fall.(probably)Journal Prompt: Is there a limit in your life you fully believe but have never tested?