how to fly

I flew a kite this evening. I had forgotten how much fun it is. The boys actually got it off the ground after contending with it quite a bit. Then they handed it to me and ran off to the hayride. It's actually a lot of work for a kite to get off the ground, especially if the people don't know what they're doing. And if you're patched together with a coat hanger.

There's a certain cooperation involved in flying a kite—not just the one holding and the one launching, but I mean with the kite itself. And the string. And the wind.

For my part, I learned (or maybe remembered) a few things tonight about flying.

1. If the kite starts to nose off to the left or the right and even goes into a hard dive, what you want to do is pull it real hard. But it's the wrong response. What the kite really needs at a time like this is more slack. With more slack it will actually complete the circle and point back up. You just have to wait for it to. Then you can help it back up to where it began.

2. In general, keeping your cool really pays. Sometimes the kite will free fall fast only to suddenly bounce back. The important thing to do is to let it. When it turns back up, then you can encourage it again.

3. If the kite goes down in a tree, keep cool. Usually, the kite will go ahead and bury its head in the back side of the tree and get the string tangled in the branches. Be patient. Don't rush it. Pulling on it at this point will successfully break the string. Short bursts followed by slack allow the kite to catch some wind and perhaps break free to soar again. Without the wind the kite is going nowhere. With the wind and a patient friend the kite is likely to fly again, even after being stuck and tangled.

4. Yelling at the kite never helps.

5. The kite doesn't really care where you stand.

6. Sometimes, no amount of patience or cool will save the kite. Sometimes the nose dive or free fall will end in a crash. (I've noticed that I always cringe when a kite hits the ground. You?) Yelling doesn't help at this point either. Nor does taking a stand. The only thing that really helps is getting the kite back into the wind. You need to cooperate with at least one other person for this. One will have to raise the kite, the other will have to run with it.

7. You can't make a kite fly. You have to let it.

Maybe you have learned some things flying yourself. How glorious it is when you finally reach the end of the rope and the kite's draw is strong enough to pull you along.