We humans are clever animals. I write this in an aluminum tube speeding westerly at 35,000 feet. Below I watched the light snakes – car headlights following the twists and turns in the roads – as their drivers and passengers started their work week by driving dozens of miles into the city environs to earn enough lucre to afford to live so far out in the country for their ‘quality’ of life.
Some ‘quality’ – 60 to 90 minutes in pack after pack of cars, all regulated by arbitrary traffic signals so that from on high they look like slowly moving dashes with occasional individual blobs of light between.
___ .. . ___ . . ___ … .. ___
At least 5 days – for some of these poor sods, 5½ or 6 days are needed to just keep up with the rest of the pack, let alone get ahead. I can’t help but wonder at what level of the corporate hierarchy these moving lights reside?
(click pic to enlarge)
Now we try to outrace the coming dawn, but man cannot easily do this for the sun comes inexorably over the horizon to cast its light upon the land – and for the 2nd of April its unseasonal heat too.
April 1st and I had to turn the AC on last night to cool and dehumidify the house so I could actually sleep comfortably. And the skeptics say there is no climate change happening. Ostriches with their proverbial heads in the sand – or lacking sand, up their behinds.
As the plane moves further west the lights of civilization spread out – obviously few people live here – and I’ll bet they don’t commute into a city. Most likely their work is right where they live – or close by at least. Some might call these folks ‘real’ people as opposed to those city dwellers further east – and especially way further west!
But these folks live on the land and appreciate its vagaries and moods. Those city folks – probably not so much as they commute from their air conditioned homes to their air conditioned offices in their air conditioned cars.
Now, I will not turn off the AC when it’s needed, but this summer I hope – by riding the MC numerous times and essentially living in a mobile home so small that I’m going to have to be outside in my ‘living room’ – to get a bit more in touch with the variable nature of Mother Gaia. I look forward to this opportunity.
All this thought as Southwest flight 711 in a Boeing 737 rose from the runway at SAT – San Antonio International Airport. Over the 11 years I’ve lived in SA I’ve probably flown out of the airport three dozen times – give or take a few. If my plans run true, this one was the last time out. One more time in and then I may return to SA a time or three in the future, but this will be the last flight out.
I suppose I could say that the day I was laid off began a new chapter in my life, But the shock of that event took several weeks to work its way out of my consciousness. Nebulous plans swirled about, misty and hazy things – long term goals and other concepts. But those weren’t real. Today, flying to Las Vegas to pay for my next few months transportation is a real event, more concrete – at least in my mind. Life really is changing. Stay tuned as the pace will quicken for some weeks before it’s all resolved.
