Skip to main content

Window Seat


Quiet time on an airplane is one of the last bastions left for every day meditation. I took advantage of my flight time this week to have a think from the window seat.

When I worked as a consultant in the "aughts", I flew a ton of miles. Over 750,000 to be exact. I stayed in a lot of hotels as well (over 400 nights to be exact), but that's for another blog post. What I learned sitting on planes is that a cabin is both a strictly confined space as well as an expansive dream chamber. Seats have gotten smaller over the decades of commercial aviation, but the same horizon-wide views fill the small window ports that open up to the sky above the clouds. At 30,000 feet, there is a sense of grand expanse unlike anything you can experience the ground, even at the top of a skyscraper. From high above the clouds, order appears from the chaos below - well-apportioned farmlands, urban centers, and jagged mountain ranges take their own measured place upon the landscape. The scenery lends itself to the sense that order can result from a variety of thoughts that might ruminate in the mind. Out of the chaos comes coherence or a new spark of inspiration for the next big idea.

That's what it seemed like, at least, if I pored through my paper notebooks from those days, which were filled to the brim with project notes and journal entries. The heady realizations and outcomes of deliberation, analysis, and emotional connection electrified pages and pages of notebooks that are now piled in my office closet. And I realize that a good portion of those pages were spurred on from a window seat not unlike the one that brought me home from a family wedding.

What is it exactly that makes a window seat such a thought-provoking place? For one thing, it is often (although increasingly less likely) the only place with an internet connection or ability to call someone (the demise of the Verizon Airfone service was coincidental with the rise of inflight internet, with an interesting intersection story). It's a place where people keep to themselves (for the most part, except when passengers get riled up), which means uninterrupted time. And a flight is often more than an hour (up to 16+ hours), which means a concentrated block of time. 

In other words, an accepted, uninterrupted block of time where people know not to - or cannot - contact you. The perfect time and place - with those inspiring expansive views - to think and reflect.

Which is what I did from the window seat on my way home. I look forward to my next trip where I can gain some new perspective high above the clouds.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Everyday Love Poem to my Wife

Over a year of marriage carries Happiness, love, and sometimes cranberries But eventually the pace slows down, Work intrudes, some days a frown And suddenly the world has changed. What we must do is simply rearrange The days so that other things fit neatly In their own places, and move on sweetly To the beauties of the everyday together. Because there is love everywhere, wherever You shall be - and perhaps also Rosie - This is a good thing naturally, So good to state it thus and remember That only frigid mornings in November Can keep us apart, but only so long As the work day lasts because so strong Is our pact that I worry not a wink - Your loveliness is worth so much, I think.
2 comments
Read more

Muggles...

...is what I tweeted last night after having the privilege of attending a private screening of the movie hours before the midnight premiere. As much as the digital revolution has fragmented the shared experiences that we have, it has also greatly expanded the impact of those events that touch various peoples. Witness Harry Potter. In the pre-digital world, this would have been an uniquely British story about wizards and boarding schools, but it has captivated global audiences and transcended the borders of its now-uber-wealthy writer. We were part of the crowd that spanned the globe to see this movie, which I can say, lives up to the hype. On a Thursday evening, we could watch the lines of children queuing up to get a chance to say goodbye to a childhood growing up with Harry Potter and watching the actor grow from a plump-faced little boy into a serious actor and apparent alcoholic. It did not matter for 2.5 hours in the theater, of a movie that was pretty gripping from beginnin...
1 comment
Read more

In Memory of Rose

Pets have an uncanny ability of ingraining themselves into the fabric of a household, so much so that their disappearance can cause great grief and disorientation to their owners. Such is the case with Rose, who passed from our household on Sunday. An older dog when we took her in to our home last year, Rose was supposedly the runt of her litter, a fact confirmed by her diminutive 5-pound Pomeranian frame - too small for her breed but too big to be classified a "teacup." This suited her just fine, however, as she came to embody a singular personality as a dog among people, often little acknowledging some dogs and appearing frightened by others just as a hesitant human being might act around jumpy canines. Rose embodied all of what defines unconditional love. She was raucous when we would leave the house and even more raucous when we returned, partly due to separation anxiety but mostly due to her sadness and excitement of being around us; she let us know her affection b...
3 comments
Read more