Saturday, April 24: Ottawa to London (Heathrow)

New thing: today I wrote in the sky. I copied this entry from my notebook after I arrived home (after my nap, of course :)).

6:26 in the air; 6:46 gate-to-gate. It doesn't sound so long, does it? 6 hours, 7 for argument's sake, and where will I be? An ocean away. 11 hours older. In another place and another time altogether. Crazy, isn't it? How traveling--air travel, in particular--can transport us from one location, one locale, one site, one home, one moment, one...one life...to another, in a heartbeat? The 'compression of time and space'. It really is baffling, it's effects on us almost incomprehensible-- both for their profundity and the immediacy with which they are delivered.

I'm on the plane now, waiting for take-off. Not listening to or watching the safety video--I have more important things on my mind.

Why do I do it? Why do I do any of the things I do? What makes me different from everyone else? What makes me different from the people who waved goodbye to me a few hours a go as I passed through security until we couldn't see each other anymore? Or the person sitting beside me? Or the dude across the aisle who keeps looking over and then looks quickly away when I turn my head in that direction? There are other people writing here, too. What are they writing about? What's on their minds? Are they happy? Are they sad? Are they unsure? Do they miss someone? Does someone miss them? Are they leaving someone? Are they returning to someone? Are they taking a big risk? Are they admitting defeat? Did they forget to buy a pack of gum to chew during landing, too (SHIT!!!)?

In many ways, planes are little worlds unto themselves. They take up a very distinct space--in our minds. Its like watching a movie: you know it's been filmed on a set or in some kind of constructed space, but you still somehow believe the place is real. Logic, reason, knowledge of film production and a general awareness of the nature of the medium all work against this inclination. But still, we believe. Why? Because how and what the film makes you think, how and what it makes you feel--where it takes you--is Real.

And so is the plane both real and unreal at the same time: it has no fixed or permanent address (and so does not/ cannot exist in reality proper), but transcends, goes beyond, soars above...the fixed, the permanent, the "real". All to have us think, feel and to take us to new places.

Its all very fantastical;, very difficult to wrap your head around, very...unreal (I couldn't think of a better word). But, if we give it a chance; if we engage in a 'willing suspension of disbelief'; if we're open to just being open to it all...