I'm Living In the Future

 As I mentioned earlier, we had an unexpected death in the family and I felt I needed to go and support those who it affected most. They were there for me when my mom was dying and I have never forgotten that. So when word of the death came, I bought a plane ticket and flew into the deep south.

I remember my first flights as a young boy flying out west for a vacation with some distant relatives. It was such a treat to sit in a comfortable seat and have people wait on you as you were whisked thousands of miles away in a very short time. This feeling lasted well into my 20's until something shifted in that industry forever. Now, I look forward to flying just about as much as I would a double root canal. The seats are shoved so close together and shrunk to the point where claustrophobia sets in. This causes the passengers to be in foul moods. You are lucky now to get a tiny package of snack mix on all but the longest of flights. Airlines now charge for everything, including bags so now people are walking onto the plane carrying even the kitchen sink which leads to even more compaction. The experience of flying now feels more like what a piece of pork does immediately before entering into the grinder and sausage press. It is such a feeling of relief to be squirted out the airplane door at the destination.

It also baffles me how in a country where huge efforts are occurring to eliminate classes of people, that airlines and airports have been allowed to rampantly promote them. The affluent are celebrated and pampered right in front of the noses of the poor and nobody says a word. I understand the desire of obtaining a more spacious seat for more money but I don't understand the desire to rush on board the plane first only to have to sit there for 40 minutes as the rest of us shuffle by bumping you with bags. The only reason that I can guess it that those with money want to be seen as someone with money. 

I ponder how the experience of flying will change in the future. I'm sure it won't be pretty unless you have a lot of money to spend on airplane tickets. I myself prefer to drive if I can and see the world around me but this trip really didn't allow for it and so I flew. I hope I don't have to do so again for quite awhile. 

While flying lacked something to desire, the rental car actually exceeded expectations. I had reserved the basic car where I full expected to be rubbing shoulders with the person seated next to me but when we got to the huge parking ramp in Atlanta to pick it up, they were out of those kind and so we got an SUV instead with lots of room. But mother nature made up for the bonus by providing a down pour of rain for our two hour drive to rural Alabama. 

I wasn't sure what to expect of a southern funeral but it was a nice simple ceremony much like what ours are like here in the Midwest. We spent a day supporting grieving loved ones into the next chapter of their lives. Having recently been on the other side of this equation, I know it won't be an easy row to hoe for awhile. But amid the support and the grief, it was nice to see family again that I don't get to see all that often these days. Despite all the miles that separate us, we are still family. 

Then in the wee hours of the morning, we were up again to repeat the process of being ground up and stuffed into a intestinal casing only to feel that sense of relief when we were squirted out back on home turf. This wasn't the future that I envisioned way back as a kid on my first flight.