What prompted me to write this - my first blog? Checking through usual media I follow - a couple of newspapers, Facebook, etc ., I came across a post "The Newest First Class Perk Is Not Having to See Another Human Being on Your Flight".
What a sad thing I thought to myself, what a contradiction with the world "Travel". Why do we travel anyway? The objective is to see lands that are not where we live, far or close, to meet people we do not meet everyday, and to discover!!
This took me back to the first few times I traveled to the USA - Now a long-time resident, forty years ago, coming to the USA as a student, looking to live at far away lands, with people we did not know much about was a "big deal". My wife and I took many trips back and forth through the years, and the communal experience that was embedded in those trans-Atlantic flights have all but gone. It was a communal experience... We all waited anxiously till "the movie" started. Everyone stopped talking and then it started. We all laughed - and sobbed, or was shocked at the same time. I remember how this experiencing the same emotions at the same time created a friendly environment. When the movie ended, We got up to go to the restroom, smoked at the rear, and made friends. As the journey of ten plus hours neared the last hour, we shared stories, plans, shared our anxieties with our travel-mates.
I can not forget one trip, maybe on a carrier like Pan-Am that no longer exists, the whole plane was in that high anxiety mode approaching the last few hours of our flight, and we heard that solemn sound of a bagpipe: Am-a-zing-grace... A tall bagpipe player walked all the way up and down the plane in a slow and steady pace, playing amazing grace to a plane full of people like me. People who have left their families and loved ones far behind, and are full of anxieties of entering the new world once again. Nobody moved or made a sound - we all listened to our dreams, expectations, and felt the loss of the loved ones we may not see for a long time - some forever.
I still travel extensively with my wife - we make a point of running away to see the rest of the world, and to meet rest of the world, any chance we get. Trans-Atlantic travel is not the communal experience it used to be. Each seat has a choice of entertainment options and we all laugh and cry by ourselves - I miss sharing that experience with a plane full of strangers. So when the advertisement implies "perfect privacy" it does not appeal to me - I have my home for that.
