When I was a kid I didn't care about the vacation, I only cared about the plane ride.
It's come full circle. I'm flying to Copenhagen tonight to give a couple of presentations next week to a couple of speechwriting and rhetoric conferences put on by the fine Danish firm Rhetor.
I've been here once before—the city is beautiful, the hosts are brilliant and warm and the audiences are enthusiastic during the Q&A, which over there they excitingly call "questions/debate."
But what am I focused on? The plane ride over, a direct flight of eight or 10 hours during which I am going to snuggle into my seat, put my thumb in my mouth, read five magazines and Hunter S. Thompson's Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, which I've been meaning to read for 10 years. I might watch an in-flight movie, but I might not for fear it would make the flight go to fast.
My flight to Australia this year was like being in my mommy's womb again, a 36-hour train trip through China a couple of years ago was a form of heaven ... and all I can think about is how wonderful it must have been to take a ship across the ocean to Europe when the only way to get or send a message for two weeks was by cable.
Lately I've expressed this love for the occasional long international flight and for the rare privacy of air travel—mind you, I don't travel an eighth as much as a Steve Crescenzo or a Shel Holtz—and others have agreed: Airport time and flying time is the only time we get to be left alone in this insanely overconnected world of ours.
Those of us who feel this powerful need to be left alone—and to be forced to leave others alone!—must find cheaper and more frequent ways to do this than air travel.
Has anybody succeeded?
Comments (8)
Naps. Daily. From 1-3 without fail.
It's my own on-flight mini-vacation.
Posted by Eileen | November 16, 2007 11:56 AM
Posted on November 16, 2007 11:56
Naps. Daily. From 1-3 without fail.
It's my own on-flight mini-vacation.
Posted by Eileen | November 16, 2007 11:56 AM
Posted on November 16, 2007 11:56
It's funny, David, I was just thinking about you writing about the latest Harper's and how you got to read it cover to cover on your last trip, which led me to think how much I look forward to traveling for that same reason (EVERY ride is a long one when you're traveling from Alaska). I love that luxury of time.
I got married a couple of months ago, and you know how you have those pre-marriage conversations about priorities? I told my husband that I don't care about many things--I don't figure I'll ever have a lot of money, and a big diamond ring doesn't mean anything to me, or power or prestige or any of that stuff. What I value above anything is time--making time for each other, showing respect for each other's time. There is no greater gift, for me, than setting aside and devoting time. It's the scarcest resource, and the sweetest.
It's like getting into a routine at the gym, which I've been both very successful and a dismal failure at. It comes down to making it a priority. "I didn't have time to go to the gym" really means "I didn't make going to the gym a priority today."
I haven't made carving out time for reading a priority (and like you, I have stacks of books and magazines beckoning, unread), and my soul fades as a result. I envy you your long trip. Enjoy, David!
Posted by Joan | November 16, 2007 12:59 PM
Posted on November 16, 2007 12:59
>>Those of us who feel this powerful need to be left alone—and to be forced to leave others alone!—must find cheaper and more frequent ways to do this than air travel.
Has anybody succeeded?<<
Trips to my hunting cabin in SE Ohio, sans television and phone access every 4 - 6 weeks (if not more frequent) seem to do the trick for me. And I can do it for about $50/weekend plus about another $50 in gas for the car to get there and and back.
Posted by Craig Jolley | November 16, 2007 2:48 PM
Posted on November 16, 2007 14:48
That sounds damned good, Craig. Eileen, I do the naps—just not such blessedly long ones. And Joan: Your soul is hanging in there.
Posted by David Murray | November 16, 2007 3:40 PM
Posted on November 16, 2007 15:40
David Murray, you are the ONLY person I know who loves (or even likes) the "rare privacy" (WHAT THE !@#$%!???) of air travel. You've zoomed to the top of my pity list and I'm taking up a collection to rent you a cube somewhere in Chicago where you can be AT LEAST as comfortable and "private" without leaving town. If that fails, try the bathroom.
Posted by Jane Greer | November 16, 2007 4:24 PM
Posted on November 16, 2007 16:24
Jane--
I have a four-year-old. The bathroom is no longer safe. Okay. Off to my aluminum tube of heaven!
David
Posted by David Murray | November 16, 2007 5:15 PM
Posted on November 16, 2007 17:15
The flight was everything I hoped, by the way, and more. Four magazines and 100 pages of the Campaign Trail book before choosing Kramer vs. Kramer from a long list of in-flight movie options. I began to cry during the opening credits and spent the next two hours hiding my constantly flowing tears from my stoic Scandanavian seat-mate before drifting off, emotionally drained, into a blissful three-hour sleep.
Can't wait for the trip home.
Posted by David Murray | November 19, 2007 4:23 AM
Posted on November 19, 2007 04:23