I love traveling. I wonder though, if I love traveling so much, why do I hate being on airplanes so much? I have some unquenchable wanderlust that brutal air travel can’t seem to destroy. It is the confinement to your seat that is required on an airplane. Being forced to remain in your seat. It’s like you are a small child. It does not feel like prison but more like after school detention. “Sit in your seat and think about what you just did. There will be no talking. Just sit there. Don’t don’t don’t. “
Why do I fly America Airlines? It is terrible. Am a glutton for punishment? Or is it a case of the devil you know? Surely not all other carriers are this bad, or are they? In a few weeks I will be on a transatlantic flight to Istanbul on Delta. Seriously considering taking a Xanax and trying to sleep the whole way. Why is flying difficult? The air is conditioned. There is food and drink. I have magazine and movies. Am I just conditioned to complain? Why do I feel so tired after doing nothing? Is the exhausting experience in my seat nothing more than the requirement to arrive at a new location?
I live an incredible life. Yet like everyone else I have some struggles. Is it truly the struggles that make it great? Are we really little lumps of coal that need pressure and heat to produce the diamond that lies within? Is it possible to make a diamond without the crushing heat it normally requires? Why are we hard-wired to avoid the pain that will inevitably produce the best version of ourselves? How come we constantly feel like the pressure will crush us? Is it possible for the pressure to crush us without producing that diamond? Does all struggle produce greatness? Or is it possible to struggle without any reward? If that is not possible why do we not embrace the struggle? Why do we run from it instead of to it? It is possible that we spend our lives running from what would make us great? Is it possible that we don’t know what we want or need?
I need to get off this plane.
October 3rd, 2012 at 1:11 am
I hate flying more than just about any other experience. The staff are always rude and unhelpful. Airports are designed to make you feel like bloody cattle. The plane is always too warm or too cold. The food is awful. The toilets are always disgusting.
The only exception is when I’ve been lucky enough to fly in business – including the one time I flew out of Hong Kong and was the only person in business on a flight to Bangkok. Then you’re made to feel excellent – except at immigration.
October 5th, 2012 at 12:12 am
Shards, I know you are on a sabbatical, but I miss your china posts.
I know, air travel is brutal. I love arriving, hate getting there. Thanks for reading and commenting.
Hope you are well.
October 3rd, 2012 at 8:19 am
I like your “pressure and heat” questions. A question I would add is: where is the pivotal point between all that P & H producing our inner diamond and producing our inner raving lunatic? Huh?
I’m an infrequent flyer and don’t mind it so much, however I do have nightmares on occasion about take-offs going terribly wrong. The aircraft flips over every time and I can feel the physical sensations of the flip in my dream. I have no idea why. So I guess I like flying but hate dreaming about flying!
October 5th, 2012 at 12:26 am
Exactly. I sometimes feel like I skip the diamond part and go straight to the lunacy.
That is funny about being scared to dream about flying but not flying.
Thanks so much for reading and commenting.
October 7th, 2012 at 11:17 pm
I don’t know if that would make any sense to you, but whenever I stumble upon questions like the ones in your last paragraph, a dialog from Woddie Allen’s Annie Hall comes to my mind:
My brother’s crazy, he thinks he’s a chicken.
” Why don’t you turn him in?”
I need the eggs…
Great post!
October 8th, 2012 at 7:52 pm
Ha, I remember the joke, very funny.
Thanks so much for the read and the comment.
October 13th, 2012 at 9:09 am
What is terrifying is the times I have been crushed and have come out more broken, heart hardened, fearful and less loving. I guess I am looking with human eyes, though. Trials can leave you longing for the next world, trying to keep the vines and weeds and worries, riches and cares from choking my life in this world. Yet, sometimes it just seems like, “Job 13:28 “So man wastes away like something rotten, like a garment eaten by moths,” But consider this, “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail”! Isaiah 51:6 If even the atmosphere and planet wear out what hope is there for my body and mind? My hope is in His salvation.
November 8th, 2012 at 9:38 am
Thanks so much for reading and commenting.
The book of Job is one of the oldest books in existence.
It is also one of the most troubling, encouraging, and infuriating, books ever written.
I read it often.
Thanks again for reading and commenting.