Rantings of the Herald

It’s simply the cost of convenience…

Flying often sucks.

There, I’ve said it - shattering at last the boyhood fascination with airports and the thought of flying anywhere (and the world would be my bivalve mollusk…) .  Shattering my young adult period urge to show up very early for any flights I might be taking - just to have an excuse to be at the airport.

See - I wanted to be a pilot when I was a kid - scratch that - I wanted to be a fucking  ASTRONAUT when I was a kid.

Didn’t everbody?

When I informed my mother of this (I must have been about seven) she told me: “Astronauts always die of cancer….”

Fuck

Now don’t get me wrong - I do not blame my mother for injecting a vague medical threat into the picture.  If I had wanted to become an astronaut I would have done it.

But the fascination with the universe beyond our planet and the sky in general remained…

And so the fascination with airports.  They are gateways to different worlds.  You walk into the building - and you walk out of a building thousands of miles away.

You don’t even have to wear shoes…

While you gaze at some of the most fascinating scenery that mother nature has to offer. 

The TOP of the clouds - which don’t behave like the bottoms do.  They are permutable in your imagination to any of thousands of different possibilities/movie scenes/tableaus/movie stars/endless animals (here is when it comes to you that no matter what shape you see, there is at least one animal that looks a little like it).

Sunsets - from the top of the clouds are always good.  I’ve seen better at ground level however I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a bad one from an airplane window (assuming it wasn’t storming).

Shuttle launches - I’ve seen two from the air so far and it does rock in a big way.  But, thats not a universal air traveler experience.  It’s  just a cool Florida thing…

City lights from above - This has to be the winner of the popular vote.  I have watched my fellow passengers on plenty of nightime flights and the lights always hold them longer than the clouds.  The clouds are nice, but there is something tiring about continually revving your imagination like a chainsaw….

But the lights….

That’s a long ass post in itself…I have made a study of the lights.  And I am in the majority.  Not many things inspire blind fascination like the rumination-provoking sight of lit cities passing you by at night.  And the approaches - that’s the payoff of the flight (other than traveling to places and stuff).

But those are the good things.  Some of them are truly beautiful at times.

Because you and I and every other reader is at least a little familiar with what I am going to talk about next.  If I could fill a book describing some of the beautiful scenes I have seen from aircraft, then I could fill a library with my opinions on the other side of the coin….

It’s the cost of the convenience…