When we flew out of KL headed for Sydney, it was mid night. We saw darkness on the other side of our window and I am sure that was what the pilot saw from the cockpit. Yet he was able to point the plane in the direction of Sydney and be totally confident that his aircraft will end up there.

My parents were uneducated – so I grew up with reference books (there was no Google in those days). We drive on roads with lane markings to guide our movement amongst other moving objects. We keep tabs on our neighbours so that we are not left behind in life’s progress and we watch the news to keep up with the goings of the modern world.

But most of the things that we refer to are quite close. We can either see it, touch it, smell it or hear it. This makes our frame of reference real and relatable. And we can take great comfort in this.

We use frames of reference to navigate. The pilot had his GPS. The ancient sailors used the stars. We can only navigate the wide expenses of our world using frames of reference that are a long way away. So, if we go beyond our senses, we can move beyond our small footprint in this world.

It is the same with our personal world. We often live our lives like the ‘domestique’ stuck in the peloton – listening to radio instructions, carting water bottles and protecting the man. Living in the thick of the action is a great thing for intense focused segments of our lives, but the big picture view is then needed for guidance. Consider that the leader of the race, the sports director, the helicopter crew above, the TV viewers, the sponsoring companies and the tour organiser all have differing views of what is happening in the race because they have different frames of reference.

As we navigate our lives, we often wonder where it is taking us. Ideally, we all should have the opportunity to die and then return to our lives again. When we know where we will be after we die, the whole frame of reference for living takes on that exponential step.

But this is not so. If we all knew so much, then our world will be entirely different – even perhaps “un-livable”. Just like a bike race cannot happen so well without the domestiques. We all need to be blinded (like the greyhounds and horse on racing tracks) to allow the world to run its race.

However, there are the selected few who are permitted to expend their frames of reference to beyond this world. These people almost have the same view as if they have returned from the life that we are going to when we die. Those who have the furthest frame of reference allow them to do things that are beyond worrying about what the neighbour is doing – just like the ancient mariners who were brave enough to come back from the ends of the world.

The question is “how far is your frame of reference?”.