Learning to Fly: Reflections on Fear, Trust, and the Joy of Letting Go

At age 62, Sam Keen learned to fly. In 1993, he started his training on the flying trapeze at the San Francisco School of Circus Arts. The fact that he was the oldest student at the school did not deter Keen from pursuing his "strange passion" (p. 15). "Over the years," he observes," I have discovered that it is hazardous to ignore passing fantasies and emerging passions. To begin with, in the degree that I cease to pursue my deepest passions, I will gradually be controlled by my deepest fears. When passion no longer waters and nurtures the psyche, fears spring up like weeds on the depleted soil of abandoned fields. I suspect the major cause of depression and despair and the appetite for violence in modern life is the result of the masses of people who are enslaved by an economic order that rewards them for laboring at jobs that do not engage their passion for creativity and meaning" (pp. 16-17). Part memoir, part metaphor, Keen's book is filled with daring leaps, midair turns, somersaults, and catches. For Keen, the trapeze is a good teacher. From his six-year love affair with the trapeze, he derives insights into fear, trust, letting go, and what it means to live life passionately. If we learn to live life as a "ten-ring circus," he writes, in "a world ruled by enchantment--where magic existed before morality, wonder before worship, pleasure before piety, and amazement before practicality" (p. 24), then we will be "transformed, changed back into children whose horizons are open" (p. 25). "The Great Path is a spiral journey," Keen notes. "Every day we begin again, knowing that danger and death may be lurking, that we will be fearful and will need to cultivate courage. We will need to keep our balance and discern when it is time to wait and when to act. We will take leaps of faith, fall, and rise again. If we are diligent in our practice, there will be unexpected moments of grace and joy and a gradual growth of mastery in fashioning our lives into something of beauty" (p. 241). Keen's LEARNING TO FLY is inspirational and insightful. Although reading it did not inspire me to attempt a triple somersault, it did encourage me to find a flying trapeze in my own life, and then to practice it, knowing that "practice is perfect" (p. 237). G. Merritt

Everyone who reads Keen knows he writes very well and from the heart. But in this book his very soul flies through the air with his words. When Sam reviewed my book, PRIMAL AWARENESS, he said it was an adventurous search for the lost ark. LEARNING TO FLY is about finding the lost ark.

I read a passage from the book at my daughter's wedding and then I wished them wings and flight. I found this book to be absolutely fascinating and, at age 57 myself, found inspiration to try new ideas. Learning to Fly is never boring. I found the chapter-beginning drawings helpful as I tried to follow Sam Keen in flight, literally as well as figuratively. A real winner!

I read Sam Keen's "Learning to Fly" out loud with my husband over the course of a few road trips. It was a truly amazing experience for us. Sam Keen shares his experiences of life and trapeze in a philosophical way, but avoids being pedantic or condescending with his message about simultaneously taking hold and letting go. I've been thinking about what Sam Keen has to say ever since I finished the book.

Towards the end of this fascinating book Keen shares a pearl of wisdom passed on to him by his friend and mentor Howard Thurman,"The hard thing when you get old is to keep your horizons open...over the years you carve yourself into a given shape. The challenge is to keep discovering the green growing edge." With literary grace and the usual "keen" insight this author has been blessed with, we go on a magical mystery tour to see and experience Sam Keen's "green growing edge" in this, his sixty eighth year. I read this book in one sitting. I have had the pleasure of taking a few baby steps on a trapeze rig, so much of what is here was re-living my short foray into the "the beyond". Even if you are only metaphorically taking leaps of faith each day, you will find a feast of insights, awarenesses, giggles, philosphical koans, and other assorted presents brought to you by one of today's liveliest minds!