This weekend, my sister and niece came to visit for the weekend. That meant going to a lot of playgrounds, getting wet in fountains, building things with blocks, and the big treat: going out for steak dinner. I invited my friend Marcus to join us.
During the ride home, I asked Marcus and my sister if either of them had heard any more news about the FAA being accused of hiding controllers’ mistakes by blaming them on pilots. Neither of them had heard anything about it, so I quickly conveyed the details and described by the Washington Post.
Figuring my niece was half-paying attention, I decided to drift the conversation more toward the way of life-lessons. “You know, it’s okay to make mistakes. You just have to take responsibility for them, and offer to help fix them. You’re more likely to be forgiven, than if you hide it — cause that will get you into more trouble.”
My sister chimed in about that being true, helping to reinforce the proper behavior at home.
Marcus added to that, “The people that fly the airplanes should simply follow the golden rule: do unto others as you’d have them do unto you.” I nodded, and he continued, “Don’t lie… Don’t steal…” His inflection indicated he was starting to struggle for some more values to list.
My niece picked up on that, interrupting with “Don’t commit adultery!”
The car went silent. Absolutely silent.
Marcus looked at me, I looked at him, my sister went brilliant red. Did she even know what that word meant?
“I’m not exactly sure how that applies to pilots, but we can run with that,” Marcus recovered quite gracefully.
Unfortunately, I didn’t help. The next words out of my mouth were “Giggity-giggity.” The kid was right.