Eye of the Mountain
Poetry · By Tommy Bielskis · 1 min read · February 25, 2026
Shut Up and Drive
Uses emergency aviation as a lesson in orientation: when fear and interpretation multiply, return attention to the immediate task of steering one’s actual life.
The first rule in flying the plane in an emergency is:
Fly the plane.
The electrical systems failed:
Fly the plane.
You lost an engine:
Fly the plane.
Fire in the cockpit:
Fly the plane.
You stay on the task at hand.
Or the flight is over.
The task at hand in life
Is accepting reality
And staying present with it.
That's the practice.
Everything else is secondary.
If you need to distract yourself
From who you are
And what's in front of you,
You are missing the point.