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Albert Einstein (Walther Matthau) is lying in a hospital bed. He is looking at a small object, held in his open palm - a compass in a wooden box . Edward (Tim Robbins) and Katherine (Meg Ryan) are standing at his bedside.

“My compass… (Albert muses out loud)

“My memory is… of my father, when I was five years old. I think I was sick in bed then, too. He gave me this compass. When I first held it in my hand, I was wonderstruck by what force, invisible and unfelt, could be holding the needle.

“Here, Edward, you take this (placing it in Edward’s hand and closing his fingers over it), so that you never lose your way, and you always keep your sense of wonder.”

- Scene from I.Q. (1994)

An Essential Instrument

Quite a few years ago, I decided it would be fun to learn to fly. No, silly, not by flapping my arms (although as a kid that method worked well - at least, in my imagination). No, I wanted to get a private pilot’s license. (Question: what, exactly, is a public pilot’s license?)

To be honest, I had no idea what would be involved in such an undertaking. I mean, once you get in the air, you push that control yoke thingie forward or backward and the plane goes up or down, right? Move it left - turn left; move it right - turn right. (How’m I doin’ so far?) Hey, what could be so hard about that?

(I must admit, though - I did have this somewhat macho image in my head, as I enthusiastically pictured myself wearing that cool leather bomber’s jacket and dark aviator sunglasses.)

Anyway, after deciding to hold off ordering the jacket just yet (I already had the sunglasses!), I started taking flying lessons from a flight school located at Houston’s Hobby Airport. Now, if you happen to be a private pilot you may already know this little factoid, but I found out later that this particular airport was, at the time, one of the busiest airports in the Southwest.

Of course, had I known it at the time, I probably would have chosen to learn at a much slower-paced location. But… c’est la vie, y’know? (Note: c’est la vie is a French term that roughly translates to I hope your life insurance is paid up, Bubba!)

Anyhoo -

As I became familiar with all the pretty little lights, dials and other instruments on the dash, on the ceiling, and practically everywhere else, one of the most important ones (at least to me), seemed like it would be the magnetic compass. I mean, if everything else failed on the plane, at least you would always know which direction you were heading, right?

Strangely enough, though, on the small plane I used for lessons, I had to keep verifying the calibration of my magnetic compass to make sure it was still accurate, because it would “drift” over time (somebody help me out here - is this true of all small planes?).

That always seemed somewhat odd to me. I mean, why wouldn’t the darned thing keep pointing toward magnetic north like compasses are supposed to? What’s with that, anyway? Nevertheless, it was part of the normal pre-flight, pre-takoff, and mid-flight routines. I just had to make sure the compass was correctly calibrated every now and then .

So where am I going with this? Well, I was wondering that too hey, I’m glad you asked!

Is That All It Does?

Now, metaphorically speaking (you do realize we’re talking in metaphors here, right?), a compass is pretty much fundamental to life. See, a compass serves one specific function, and that’s pretty much it: It tells you which direction you’re heading. Pretty simple, right?

So what’s so important about that, anyway? I mean, with all the choices in life out there, what’s wrong with going in more than one direction - to try several things at once, even. Isn’t choice a good thing? Well, of course it is!

But there’s a catch. Once a course is chosen, that’s when the compass comes in handy; when it can really do its thing. Allow me to illustrate with a few specific scenes…

Scene 1

A teen-ager leaves home for the very first time to attend a nearby college, taking the first steps to Higher Learning, eventually choosing a career path, and (hopefully productive!) adulthood. It’s exciting, but at the same time it’s scary beyond belief. While at school, he is exposed to literally every subject under the sun, from philosophy to the sciences. On top of that, people all around him are doing things he never imagined doing, and he wonders… what’s really OK, and what’s not. Nobody is willing to say. He begins stretching beyond the boundaries of his childhood, and before long, nothing seems out of bounds to him.

Question: What is this young person’s compass?

Scene 2

A happily married man goes alone on a business trip to Las Vegas, where “what happens there, stays there” (at least, that’s the laughable claim, anyway; in truth, what happens stays with us, always). As he walks the sidewalks of the Strip, scores of hawkers line up on either side, offering enticing glimpses of every vice under the sun. He completely ignores them. Sitting in his room that night, he glances at the wedding band on his finger while reminiscing about such things as his wedding day, the feel of his wife in his arms, and the simple pleasure of waking up next to her.

Question: What is this man’s compass?

Scene 3

A despondent young man comes face to face with the belief that his life had no meaning whatsoever. He spends days… weeks… even months struggling with the recurring thought: what’s the point? Finally, his roommate sits him down one day and shows him how to find the solution to life by giving his heart to Jesus Christ as his Savior - and he does. Over the years, his life has its ups and downs, successes and failures. But every time life get rough, or cloaked in uncertainty, he knows he can always count on his Faith to see him through - and it always does.

Question: What is this man’s compass?

How to Know You’re on Track

The thing is, I don’t consider having an internal compass as quite the same thing as, well, making plans, getting guidance from an advisor or mentor, or even pursuing a job you’ve always wanted. Those are what you might call active, er, activities - stuff for which we pretty much have control and responsibility.

No, a compass is much different in that it is an entirely passive instrument. What makes it work is a force, invisible and unfelt, that pulls the needle in one direction, and one direction only.

It won’t choose your course for you (although it can help). It won’t keep you from making bad choices in life (although it can inform you when you do). In fact, it doesn’t seem to do much of anything at all except sit there and… point.

But as life unfolds before us, isn’t that pretty much the thing we need the most? Something to let us know when the path we’re on is taking us away from our compass heading? I know it holds true for me. And there’s no greater comfort when, for instance, I’m recovering from the consequences of a bad choice, to know that I’m back on the right course.

So what’s your compass? Do you have one, and when did you figure out what it was? Has it been with you a long time, or has it been more recent? Would you care to add, subtract, dispute or reinforce anything I’ve said here?

[Oh, by the way, for yet another one of my flying adventures (um, let's just give it the benefit of the doubt and call it that, shall we?) , you might enjoy this story too: Fear of Flying]

(final photo credit: Map and Compass, by Inky Bob - er, no relation)

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