The Day Superman Crashed

As long as there have been humans, men and women have looked at what God has made and tried to copy it.

Dale Mason, Publisher

For those of you who follow this column, by now you know that I like it to highlight how something in the current issue touches our everyday lives. Sometimes that means I have to lay bare my own past, even to my own embarrassment.

In one of the earliest “scientific tests” that this slightly pudgy and highly energetic boy ever attempted, I tried to fly. I think I was four. It’s only by the grace of God that I made it to five!

Flying looked effortless for the birds in my backyard. And on those afternoon reruns a mild-mannered journalist would leap into thin air and glide across the horizon, rescuing Lois Lane or capturing crooks. With such examples of flight—by birds and people—perhaps you can appreciate this naïve preschooler’s sunny afternoon experiment.

My mother explains how she looked out the kitchen window and saw me atop our backyard slide with a towel draped over my back. She hesitated, thinking to herself, “Surely he wouldn’t . . . .” Then, before she could open the window to stop me, I’d already thrown myself off the slide and landed with a nose-crunching “thud” on the grass below. Whatever air had been in my lungs at the top of the slide was gone when I hit the ground. No broken bones, but my attempt to replicate the easy-looking glide of birds had been a miserable failure. I turned in my cape.

Thankfully, many others who have looked at God’s designs have had much greater success, although I’m sure their mothers could tell stories about some of their childhood escapades, too. In this issue of Answers you’ll find a beautifully illustrated section called “God Invented It First.” It’s about the fast-growing field of biomimicry, and several authors highlight the latest ideas for copying designs in dragonflies, frogs, muscle tissue, and more. It’s fascinating to see what’s already been accomplished and to learn what may be in the not-too-distant future.

Enjoy this issue. But keep an eye on the kids!

All for Him,

Dale T. Mason, Publisher

P.S. If you have a story about your own childhood attempt to fly, share it with me on the “Answers Magazine” Facebook page! I’d love to hear from you.