I have been flying a lot more in the past few years and in doing so; I’ve noticed two things. First, people hate to fly. Second, I don’t agree with those people. With this grand realization, I have decided to write a 3 part blog series going over my love of flying and tips to help you do the same. I’m calling it “Zen And The Art of Airplane Food”. Welcome the first instalment.
It might just be an attitude thing. For example, if you can’t relax, hate people, and hate awesome things, sure, I can understand why you hate flying. But for this blog post to have any chance of having a point, I need try and get you to see it from my prospective.
For me flying has become a type of limbo space. Between leaving your everyday life behind and waiting to start a new adventure, I see this time as being completely isolated. Once I’m inside the doors I no longer have a job, obligations, or expectations. I’m cut off from everything, but what is happening to me at that moment. I can have a hard time finding a reason to unplug myself from my phone and the Internet. There’s just a lot of stuff I need to get done, all the time. So when I have a steward yelling at me to put me phone away, I take the suggestion and let my brain reset back to the “in the moment” setting. There are lots of options while in the setting like; flirt with the cuties, watch a movie, write, or do some reading. What I do most is just sit back and think. I like to ponder the greatest questions in my life, such as “how much weight will I save if I cut the tags off all my travel gear” (the answer is enough) and “how many Nomad 7 solar panels will it take to charge my old MacBook Pro”.
Planes are fast, easy, and cheap. The one other form of travel I love as much as flying is travel by train. It maybe easy, but it’s not cheap. It’s not fast either. A train ride will become the trip itself when you spend four days on rails from Toronto to Vancouver. So flying is more of a means to an end and in that regard, its fast and easy travel. If you want or need to be somewhere else far away, travel by plane is the best option. Fast, easy, and cheap.
I can’t forget to mention the view. It may seem like a small reward for getting in a tin can way up in the sky, but it’s also one of a few ways to get that view. So when I’m up there, I make sure to take it all in. I will always fly in the window seat to get the view. My apologies to the people sitting next to me, you’ll find out the annoying way I have a small bladder and restless legs. Your annoyance is a small price to pay for my pleasure. Unless you confront me about it, then I’ll apologize and hold in the next one for the reminder of the flight.
I love flying, the entire process from checking into the airport to arriving at my destination. It might just be a coincidence, but my happy place is flying Pan Am in 1957[1].
[1] Is it weird I based my happy place off old school air travel I’ve only seen in TV and movies? Nah, It’s fine.