johanna’s journey

San Diego International Airport Musings

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Gaping confusion is absolutely contagious to stare at, I noticed, watching the large shouldered woman spin in circles around herself.  Palms open question marks at the end of her stalky arms, her mouth the hanging “o” of the unknown.  I looked around her as she did, both to see what she might be seeking (as though I could find it for her), as well as to note how many others were also pulled magnet-like into her confusion.  Spin, Spin.  It might have been her luggage lost, her plane left, a loved one misplaced, I mused in those seconds. 
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There, within feet of her, a bearded man claimed her with just a simple nod of not having missed her absence nor noted her confusion whatsoever, “The flight is delayed,” he said blankly.  She moved toward him, her question marks turning to exclamations, “I have been looking for you.” Syllables of accusations, as though it were he that had moved from the spot by the pillar.  No notable change in expression shifted his beard, but his mouth moved in reply and my eyes moved on.  A full round room. 
*

What a place this is, the airport.  Pieces of life and culture, time and the world sifting around within a special gathering place meant to move us about further into far flung corners of earth that are no longer mysterious nor unimagined.  I wonder on how that fades the color of places.  The known-ness of them.  Like a quilt in the constant sunshine.   A place in the spotlight. 

Stones worn smooth by the passing of many pilgrims.
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Or perhaps that makes them all the more vibrant.  These glimpses garnered from the worldly among us.  Shared through glossy pages and explained as though we ourselves join the adventure alongside the National Geographic magazine travelers.  Lucky adventure-travel journalists. 
Ode to be one.  Yet, as many other things, I must not want it that badly – since clearly, I am not one.
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Or at least, I am not by my standards, though others might name me so.  Or rather, they have thus named me, with words like, “You’re crazy.” Or “I never know where in the world I will find you.”
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But I suppose by adventure travel, I mean things like climbing Mount Everest then Mount Kilimanjaro, or learning to wrestle alligators, or eating the brains of some unnamed creature, roasted over fire in the jungle.  In the desert.  In the abyss of the arctic.  THAT’S Adventure Travel.
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So, from here – I can see one woman learning about how to become a millionaire, three men deeply gone into their laptop computers, a woman anxiously sipping her cocktail,  – her calm demeanor undone by her frenetic eyes sifting through the room.  Two men becoming loud with drink leaning against the bar. A sister and brother hungrily devouring boxed pizza, remnants of Disneyland scattered in bags at their feet…. Another guy, bandana-ed, sunglassed, impervious.
* 
My flight is delayed.  I look to the pillar and see the bearded man still there.  Hands in his pockets, the wondering woman again gone from sight.  I wonder if we three are delayed together to be carried back to the Arizona desert.  Curious if shortly the woman will appear again, spinning slowly, lost down my row.  Looking for that which she left behind.  Again.  Like deja’vu.  Or a glitch in the matrix.
*
They are announcing a flight to Boston. 

Is anyone else ever greatly tempted at the airport –  to board and jump in an unexpected direction? 

To the other side of the country or ocean.  To make the very old ground beneath your feet be brand spanking new, even if only to you.  To awaken every sense with all-things-new.  Air your lungs have never known.  Colors combined in new patterns.  Fill your ears with the sound of communication that sounds like a mish-mash of sounds that doesn’t make sense only to you.  Taste that sends brand new information, images to your brain.  Textures for your tongue, your fingertips that you didn’t even know how to imagine before.  Music from instruments that strum and pulse through you like no mp3 player has. 
Flight 2328, service to Anywhere….
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Anyone else?
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