flight of the now

Tucked away in our whimsical minds is a tranquil vision in which we see ourselves on a long flight that spans an entire continent. We're traveling by magic carpet and, from the sky, we take in the passing scenes of children waving, of sheep grazing in distant pastures, of row upon row of corn and wheat, of rivers and valleys, of city skylines and church steeples.
 
But uppermost in our minds is our final destination, for at a certain hour and on a given day, our magic carpet ride will finally l...