Once again, I found myself in a long line of travelers – heads down, feet shuffling, moving like chained inmates in the cinema, we all hold our elbows in and misjudge the depth of our backpacks as we trundle down the airplane aisle. Trundle. I cannot think of a better word for that reluctant and simultaneously impatient gait. Some of us have been rather rudely parted from our carry-ons planeside, which we only brought as carry-ons to avoid the baggage fee which is moot at this point anyway, but the knowledge that our extra t-shirts and socks are under our feet rather than above our heads still rankles.
I’ve done a lot of flying this week with a lot of different airlines. (Now, I have to also say at this point before I launch into a bit of a ramble about ports and planes that I also had a positively splendid time with family in DC, family which I wasn’t expecting to get to see for a long time – a completely coincidental meeting and it was just lovely. I am so grateful that it happened!)
Back to what I was saying. Traveling in this world is an interesting beast. You have to give a lot up. Yes, on the one hand, we are miles and lightyears ahead of what used to be the case for this kind of travel – scurvy and occasionally being lost at sea, then broken wagon wheels and dying of rattlesnake bites in the middle of the desert (Oregon Trail, anyone?). But today’s traveling comes with its own idiosyncrasies.
Thing 1: We submit ourselves to a world completely controlled by capitalism when we travel. Sometimes, it comes right down to what I call “minor injustices” in my head (okay, a bit dramatic, but you’ll see) when we’re trapped in the traveling world. For example, to log on to the “free” wifi at several airports, you need to watch an add on your device in order to do so. If you mute the video, you cannot log on. Now, you can still let it play and look the other direction, but this forced entry into capitalism and materialism can hurt. (NOTE: Being without wifi is not cruel or inhumane. I do not mind being unconnected to wifi. I do think that whoever decided the forced consumption of an advertisement was a fair exchange for internet in an airport is a creepy and twisted individual.)
Another instance of this happened on one of my early flights when something was happening with the air circulation system on the plane and when I asked, I was informed that blankets were only available for purchase. Now, part of this is because the airlines as a whole are not doing well – but still. I imagine you could come up with a story if you had a shivering child and get a blanket without charge, but we shouldn’t have to stoop to that.
These are just some examples of the way in which one is trapped when one travels. In the world of the airport and airlines, you have to give in unless you are incredibly, incredibly prepared. I refer mainly here to airport food. The options are the only ones left to you. I felt like I was in a horror film these past few days, reading ingredient lists on things like pretzels and trail mix and feeling myself quake in my shoes at the partially-hydrogenated-corn-solids that are somehow necessary in RAISINS, not to mention what goes into yogurt or bread. Finding vegetables that are not iceberg lettuce is – well, let’s just say that I spent a lot of time in airports this week and I did not always succeed.
Sensory bombardment – whether it is billboards, posters, PA announcements or the blaring TVs in every terminal, we are assaulted while we travel with noise and agendas. It’s never been so obvious to me as it has been this week, since I have spent so much time in these places.
And interactions with people – you can tell my thoughts are all over the place this week. I’ve had a lot of time in my own head. My longest conversations have been while checking in to hotels. But strangers – we are so far apart fom our fellow human beings these days. So very, very far away. Hours and hours of sitting next to each other, and not a word. An awkward glance when someone has to go to the restroom and the rest have to stand up to let them go. And bad moods can spread like wildfire when there is rudeness (which there frequently is – because these are strangers, we’ll never see them again, why does it matter if we are rude to them?) – we simmer and grumble but never communicate.
Okay, humanity isn’t doomed and neither is the travel industry. It’s just the demand for service on the part of the consumer and the demand for profit on the part of the providers seems to be leading to more and more uncomfortable circumstances and interactions. I caught myself thinking yesterday “Imagine how many more people could fit in a plane if we made them stand? All the room those legs take up while sitting could be done away with…”
But then again, it has to be said that flight is one very cool thing that we have managed to do as humans. Last night when I got on that “short” five-and-a-bit hour flight from Washington, DC back to California, we boarded in the evening and I had a sudden flashback to the first flight that I ever remember consciously taking as a kid. It was a similar flight – from the East coast to the West, leaving in the evening. And I remember thinking then that we were “chasing the sunset”—which you do. The sun is setting in the west and you fly towards it, extending that beautiful red sky for longer than you ever normally get to see it. We’re still not fast enough, of course, and time passes as you fly so eventually the sun does set, but that visual and the words describing it stayed in my head all of these years.
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