The Art of ... Shared Experience

This blog is no longer taxiing on the runway and is ready for takeoff! I got back a few days ago from a trip to Vermont, which has inspired a slew of upcoming posts. But all of the wonderful experiences I had were slightly overshadowed at the end of my odyssey by a stressful travel day. Well, make that 2 travel days thanks to delays and overnight detours in Motown. Everything worked out in the end, and I got home safe and sound a mere 12 hours late, but I couldn't help but notice the people around me while all of this was happening. Have you ever had an experience where everyone's face shows what you're feeling? Standing in the 90 degree heat at midnight waiting for a hotel shuttle and then in line a brief 5 hours later to go through security, I was amazed by how we all looked the same. Eyes rimmed by dark circles, bodies smothered by rumpled clothes, weary expressions and wary attitudes towards airlines plastered on faces like the greasy, sweaty hair on our heads. Perhaps it was the sleep deprivation, but in that moment I felt like I had comrades. I almost suggested we get tattoos or at least matching t-shirts, but it would have taken too much energy to be snarky.

To celebrate my fellow travellers and wish them all safe journeys, I wanted to share my favorite films and TV shows that involve soaring through the friendly (and at times not-so-friendly) skies.

When Harry Met Sally- Starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan

While this isn't a travel movie per se, our title characters do reconnect on an airplane. And there's something so decidedly foreign about how air travel was 20 years ago. You could take people to the gate? You could leave your shoes on the entire time your travelled? They served food on planes? And, while I know that this is a Hollywood plane, looks at the room they have! And those seats look comfortable too. From now on, I want to travel like it's 1990.

Lost


This entire series began with a plane crash. Not exactly what someone like me who is petrified to fly should think about while in the air. Yet, I always think back to what Jack says to Rose just before the moment pictured above happens. "Planes want to be in the air." Well, you know what, Dr. Jack? The irony of that statement will be evident in about 30 seconds. This show is too wonderful to sum up in a teensy paragraph, but I do have to applaud their skills in making turbulence even more terrifying than it is in real life.

Hello Hugh. Could you be more charming?

Love Actually


This goes down as the loveliest film bookended by scenes at an airport in history. This is one of my always and forever favorite films because it's sweet without being saccharine, and the ensemble cast is phenomenal. I suppose we can blame it for the bevy of films that have been and are being made with a large cast centered around a holiday (I can smell the stink from New Year's Eve just from the preview), but none of them will ever be as good as this. When Hugh Grant's character starts talking about seeing people you love at an airport and how "love actually is all around," I start to cry. Every. Time.


Love them or hate them, airports are a microcosm of humanity. There is no place else on the planet where you can find such a buffet of the human experience and emotional spectrum. And, while I don't want to go back to one for a little while, I appreciate their beauty and the service they provide. In the end, we're all just trying to get from point A to point B, and at least most airports have Starbucks now. That's makes things much better.


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