I have never understood how it is that a plane can fly. At the height of my air travel for work, when I flew several times a month, I read books about it. I felt that if I was spending so much time at 40,000 feet I should educate myself as to how that is possible. I could never grasp even the basics. What I learned in my inability to learn is that although I cannot explain how it is that I am in a tube hurtling through the spacious skies at 500 mph, I can still appreciate it, be marveled by it. From sea to shining sea I have looked down at the waves of grain, mountains, plains, rivers, deserts, oceans, islands, forests, all below. Then there are the clouds. To look down on a cloud is unimaginable, to travel in and out of the puffy cotton balls of our youth is a thrill.
As kids, we are taught the outline of each state and its capital. In the air, we are given the opportunity to get a glimpse into what lies between the 50 shapes we first recognized as children. It may be a stretch – by about 250,000 miles – but it’s not unlike an astronaut looking down on Earth from the moon (with TSA PreCheck but without the space suit).
Maybe it’s best that I don’t know how air travel happens. I am awfully grateful, though, that it does. I realize that I am paying for the transportation from point A to point B, but to me, the view out the window is worth the ticket price alone. Sadly, I am no longer able to see much from that precious position except the white and the blue. Yet because of the distance traversed and hours spent in an airplane chair, I can conjure up the mile-high sights of Kansas, the Atlantic, the Grand Canyon, San Francisco, the Colorado River.
Even more perplexing to me than the physics of getting up there is the behavior of many while there. How can you not want a window seat or have such a coveted perch then close the shade? You can sleep in your hotel room that evening or during your business meeting later that day. Before you get to your destination, enjoy your tour of the world below. Like Neil and Buzz, keep your shade up. Maybe you’ll spot Houston, no problem.
#sisterrain #alittlesightalotofheart #legallyblindtraveler #travel #ashadyquestion
