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Does Airline Travel Show Us Who We Are?
It brings out the best and worst in us
Snaking lines of listless people waiting in queues. Scattered rushes of anxious passengers racing toward gates.
Airports are strange places. They are places between places. I haven’t set foot in an airport in almost two years and remember them as ungrounded, untethered spaces that put us on edge.
I’ve seen seemingly mild-mannered business professionals approach ticket counters, hear some undesired news, and morph into John McEnroe at his most apoplectic.
“What do you mean you can’t get me on a flight out tonight? This is ridiculous! I hope the f***ing airline goes under, and you lose your job!”
I’ve witnessed adults jostle for overhead bins like preschoolers fighting over cubbies. The closest I’ve ever come to violence against anyone has been to the inconsiderate jerks who recline their chairs all the way back. I’ve imagined the satisfaction I’d feel after kicking their seats.
Many of us feel unsettled and vulnerable during air travel. We’re nervous about making connecting flights and powerless to the unpredictability of flight schedules threatening to upend our best-laid plans. In-flight, suspended between places, with too many people crammed in too small an area, we’re even more on…
