Book Review. Highest Duty by Capt. Chesley Sullenberger

I was walking in the sunny mall in fabulous, sunny LA last weekend with my dear friend Cathryn. You remember Cathryn. She is the one who keeps maple syrup with her at all times on the off chance that she stops at an IHop.

“I want to stop at Barnes and Noble and get the new book by Sully.”

“The guy who landed in the Hudson? He wrote a book? About what?”

“He wrote a book about his life. What do you mean? He’s an American hero. I want to read it. You are so negative.”

I started to rail on him. She fought back hard. I felt guilty that I wasn’t buying into the fabulous book that will clearly lead us all to our better selves. So, of course, I bought her Highest Duty and myself a copy as well in the hopes of being a better person because of his life’s lesson. Birds hit plane. Plane lands on Hudson. Lesson learned. But, I was still disquieted. (I love the word disquieted.)

Here is the thing. A hero puts themself in harm’s way knowing there is danger and they might not live to tell the tale. When I was five or six, I saw my father run into a burning house to see if the wife was home. I remember everyone in the neighborhood say he was a hero. Sully, while an amazing pilot, who kept his cool when faced with a situtation that could have cost a few hundred lives, is not a hero. From what I’ve seen, he’s calm, cool, an amazing controller of a large massive piece of steel. But hero? Would he have chosen to pilot that plane if he knew what was going to happen?

It is so American to take a fateful incident and make it into something else totally. It’s such media hype, and it makes me mad. I read the book. It took about an hour because he really has nothing to say.

He’s not a compelling speaker – or writer. Jeff Zaslow, according to the acknowledgements, probably wrote the book, and Sully spends a good chunk of time saying things like, “For my wife and daughters. I love you more than I can put into words.” See that’s the thing; he’s not a word guy. His life does not have a message. I am not going to feel guilty for being disappointed that he didn’t go back to his honorable, simple, decent life instead of cashing in on his five minutes of fame the way I would have done – and he did. I expected more of him. I might even ask Cathryn for the money I spent on her book because she made me feel guilty.

When this all happened, Sully was a humble, hard-working decent father, husband and pilot. What was so extraordinary about Sully was that he wasn’t like me. He was humble, simple, solid and kept his head together for fifteen minutes over the Hudson River in New York City when I would have told the co-pilot to keep it as steady as possible, run outside the cockpit, opened the door of the plane, squatted down and jumped out just before it hit, hoping to save myself, all the while screaming to everyone in the plane to remain in their seats and calm. The only exception to this plan would have been if my daughter was with me, and then I would have had her squatting next to me.

But, that’s me. And, I loved that he was better than me. And, I liked admiring him from afar and knowing that there are people like him flying the unfriendly skies I hate to habitate. All that is lost now. So, do not buy the book and try to keep in mind the quiet guy on 60 Minutes before he really let ‘them’ use him to the greater glory of financial gain, and went to the dark side like the rest of us.

Let us put perspective back into things and celebrate moments and let them be just that – a moment in time when something incredibly lucky happened. Extending those moments past that really demeans them. It doesn’t make them better.