Charles Lindbergh on finding the core of how to live one’s life

    A young Charles Lindbergh spent the night next to his plane on the Bonneville Salt Flats, planning how to make his soul:

The trend I decided to set that night on the Salt Lake desert involved more subtle problems than merely setting a trend to combat fear. I had no clear-cut objective. I was trying to combine two seemingly contrary objectives, to be part of the civilization of my time but not to be bound by its conventional superfluity. . . . I would cut down on all these activities. I would eliminate the superfluous, simplify my life, and let the trend develop. One thing seemed certain. The key to appreciation, to a balanced being, to joy and grace, lay in a basic simplicity beneath the elaborate garments of culture one chose or was forced to wear. I would reduce my obligations, give away some of my possessions, concentrate my business and social interests. I would take advantage of the civilization into which I had been born without losing the basic qualities of life from which all works of men must emanate.
    The important thing was the core. But what was it: how much of it was physical, how much mental, how much spiritual? How could one reach one’s core?

    (Quoted from page 179 of The Life of the Creative Spirit, by H. Charles Romesburg.)
    For a brief biography of Charles Lindbergh, click here. For images of or relating to Charles Lindbergh, click here.