deo juvante
I love airports. I feel at home in them.
I was talking with Erin (local Erin) during a snack run to the grocery store right before the Superbowl party on Sunday. She told me about her three years in Korea, a stint from which she returned not too long ago. I talked a little about my time overseas and shared my recent discovery of the term “third culture kid” (see a few posts down), a term she became familiar with during her own time in Asia. She remembered talking with MKs and other expatriates and asking them where they felt most at home. Many of them responded, “Airports,” jokingly but I’m sure with a grain of truth.
And I identified with that. Sure there are delays and overcrowding and construction and all manner of inconveniences, but I think it was always the situation in which I found myself passing through them that impressed upon me–either the outbound mindset, full of anticipation and excitement about upcoming experiences and challenges, or the homecoming mindset, full of relief and longing for my own bed to sleep in. I remember my surroundings in various airports and I remember those feelings.
Or maybe it was the fact that airports have a culture unto themselves, especially international ones. They’re neither here nor there, full of comings and goings, and while some of them have more care invested in their decoration and embellishment, most of them seem to derive their aesthetic from the fact that the people within are just transients. There’s an awareness of the lack of permanence in the decoration and architecture, especially in airports with a degree of construction taking place (which is virtually all of them). That mindset works its way into the atmosphere of the place and the responses of the people there. It creates a kind of “third culture,” for the place, an “airport culture,” one for which I feel a great affection.
* * * * * *
I flew to Shelby today, by myself. I took pictures (which I’m sure you’re all tired of by now). It was the first time I felt completely in control of the whole process, able to stay ahead of the decision-making process and the airplane. More than that, I really had a sense of the machine I was commanding. The experience ceased to become simply managing the view of the outside world as if I were static in the midst of some giant video game–I had a mental conception of the airplane’s extremities, the engine up front, wings to the side, empennage out back and landing gear underneath. It sounds simple but it’s a fundamental shift in perception. And if nothing else, it made for some nice landings :)
I feel very at home in airports. I love flying. Of course, I’m not the pilot (some of us are luckier than others *wink*) but I think it’s a great form of transportation.
deo adjuvante, non timendum
Congrats on continued success and improvement in flying, finding, and landing! It sounds like you’re tapping into a true flying instinct!
Mmmhmm.
Thank you :) I dunno if it’s uniquely a flying instinct. The experience can be replicated somewhat just driving down the road in a car. Visualize the car as an extension of yourself, where its corners are, the contact patches between the road and the tires, etc. It’s easier with some cars than with others, usually those that are more direct and undampened in their responses, i.e. those we consider more “fun to drive.”
Hmmm, yes, I see what you mean… but with the extra dimension added by the “lift” makes it more impressive all the same! Oh the differential geometry concepts that come to mind!
Have fun flyin’!!!
Happy Friday! : )
Thanks Elizabeth :) ‘Twas a good day for it.
Yay skiing!