Travel... The New Frontier?

I am home. I am resting... my mind begins to wander...

I feel like this blog is no longer relevant to my life as I am usually too busy to post on it... Grad school will do that, its true... but I am sad about this and am going to try to rectify this for the future friends.

I have arrived in home safe and sound in Santa Fe for Christmas after what can only be described as a long and arduous journey, most of the minutia of which I will spare you... (but suffice it to say I was stuck at the gate at LGA because of the bad weather and icy conditions our flight was 2 hours and 45 mins late and of course missed my connection at Atlanta, and was almost stuck in ATL until Monday... but I luckily (after three gate changes) I got another flight to ABQ flying stand by which was a new and amazing experience for me...) but for some reason (probably sheer exhaustion) made this particular sojourn strangely emotional for me... i can't really explain why.

It might have something to do with this awe inspiring book i am reading. Its called, "A Natural History of the Senses" by Diane Ackerman. Its a very sexy book about how we perceive our world through our senses in a kind of biological/anthropological way. However, not my friends in a bookish pedantic kind of way, but rather the author, in a brilliantly poetic language writes about the history of the senses through literary references to Proust, Shakespeare, film, poetry, you name it. The way the author has intertwined all aspects of her topic is totally beautiful... i love reading this book...

Somehow, the experience of reading this book on a plane was really moving. (Much like the experience I had the time I read Orwell's 1984 on the nyc subway...) something about my surroundings made the author's point and point of view more real for me.

I guess reading about the realities and emotional experiences of your senses in a place where you can not really control your environment was odd for me. I was traveling by myself. Sitting next to a complete stranger. Breathing in air that has been filtered hundreds of times, in a chair that millions of people have sat and been strapped into in before me. Surrounded by a hundred or so complete strangers from all walks of life... I don't know what it was. Maybe it was because we were stuck on the plane at the gate for an 1 and 45 mins... that could be it.

I think airports are one of the most fascinating places in the world. Not only to do have people from every walk of life, every culture, every locale, but you see them carrying their life on their back (most people, like me who don't like to check baggage if you can help it.) Its like an anthropological cocktail. and i enjoyed every sip of it. (I am a dashed martini!)

Travel really is a great equalizer. You notice the funniest things when you are flying standby. Mainly because you are standing up right by the gate when most people have already boarded the plane. But the number of people that run up at the last min trying to get on the plane is staggering (now i can understand why people who work as gate agents must feel like everyday. Everyone has some excuse. Everyone needs something from you. Must be an awful career). I kept asking myself why are people so oblivious to the obvious? I was standing there and watched this businessman with his blackberry glued to his ear (or his bluetooth headpiece, more like) and he was yakking away about his business trip to whoever, yadda yadda ya and all the sudden i saw panic, sheer panic as he realized that the door was closing on the flight he was supposed to be on. Seriously? you've been standing there for how long mister chatting away to whoever when you should have been getting on the plane! they almost gave his seat away. amazing.

Then I saw people literally spiriting to catch a flight. Beads of sweat, panting, long strides, suitcases on wheels rolling behind them straining to catch up, backpacks flapping in the breeze... all trying to make their flights. Is travel the next extreme sport? I mean we have swum the english channel loads of times, circumnavigated the globe by ship, plane, train and automobile, skydived and bungee jumped to our hearts content, climbed mount everest more times than anyone should have... but what do we do now? Man vs. Nature is so passe... Now is it Man vs. Time? Man vs. Sense? Man vs. Travel Gods? Is travel the new adrenaline rush junkies best friend? Air travel at least seems like an adverse condition. Compared to climbing K2 in a snowstorm, who knows?

Anyway, I am home now. that's all the matters. Won't have another travel cocktail until after the holidays... can't wait to see what the next installment brings...