The View from the top of the Ferris Wheel

As a kid my family, like the majority in Chatham County, Georgia, vacationed on Tybee Island.

We'd stay for a week at Cobbs or at Barbi's Beach House, spending most every moment of sunshine on the beach, breaking only for a lunch of baloney sandwiches and potato chips which we prepared ourselves back at the rental. For supper we'd grill hot dogs or hamburgers on the bar-b-q provided for free.

Occasional treks were made to Bill's Grill for corndogs and to Christy's with it's cool juke box in the corner for the best French fries anywhere!

In the evenings we'd make our way to the Pier and watch the teenagers dance, to the tiny shooting gallery between Christy's and Chu's Department Store which had most everything ever invented or to the arcade on the end of the street.

Eventually we entered the Tybee Amusement Park with its colorful Carousal, boats that went in a circle, a roller coaster and the world's fastest Ferris Wheel. Dad would sit between David and me and once the Wheel began to spin, he rocked the car scaring the living daylights out of us! Round and round we'd go with air exhaling from our lungs as we began the rapid descent from the top.

It slows when riders are released and eventually everyone spends a few minutes sitting on top of the world. The vastness of the ocean lay directly in front. The moon casts a soft white glow on the waves. The lights and action of the Pier are below. Directly underneath kids scurry from ride to ride, eat cotton candy and families meander around holding hands.

Sitting there, both hands tightly clutching the safety bar, I'm completely overwhelmed by everything. I'd never seen so much of the world at once and quickly glance in every direction ... the roof tops to the right, a water slide and hotels to the left and the stars on the water in front.

It's incredibly quiet and Dad whispers, "It's beautiful."

And it was.

If you're lucky in life, you find yourself separated from everything sometimes, enabling you to see and feel everything at once. A detached objectivity is achieved. Senses are full, your heart is completely open to everything and you can see both the future and past in crystal clear perception.

Such experiences are counted in moments. They are brilliant incarnations of everything we are. "Stabs of Joy," is what C.S. Lewis called them.

The Kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven," is how the Bible puts it.

The Ferris Wheel lunches forward into a slower descent and the view from the top is quickly lost.

I see the lines of people waiting to take my place. I wonder which ride is next. I hope we can stay and Dad doesn't make us head back to the cottage. I wish I still on top of the world. A sad sense of loss grows inside. All too soon, it's over.

That's life isn't it?

The thing is, I can still get to the top of the world anytime I want. The memory, the feelings, the overflowing senses ... even the smell of my Father are easily conjured up if I put myself in the right place. I can only sustain it for a moment or two, but I can every once in a while.

That's faith isn't it?

And one day soon, we can all be on top of the world again.

That's belief.
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An eccentric life dotted with eclectic characters pop from the pages of award winning author Micheal Elliott’s newest book Sandy Bottoms & Duct Taped Hearts. Over 200 pages of his musings immerse you in a world of headshaking wonder, gut wrenching laughter, heart touched tenderness and empathetic tears.

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