Posted by: John Savageau in travel, reality on
Mar 1, 2009
Stuck at the Washington Dulles airport trying to get to JFK. A couple thouand people sitting around the terminal gate area with laptop computers, either whacking away at email, or desperately connecting to the "Weather Channel" and FAA sites to try and beat the odds of a dreaded cancellation.
Still amazing - all the technology we have and the entire eastern seaboard is paralyzed by 2 inches of snow. I hope when we finally get the to the point of being able to transport matter and people from city to city that a simple snow storm does not kill the deal through too much interference.
But for this morning, with all the radar, sophisticated aircraft, and best airport maintenance in the world, we are still at the mercy of mother nature!
Last night was one of those Pacific Ocean sunsets that make you think a lot about life. Bright orange that brings out colors in the coastal areas and mountains that draws you into a near trance. You cannot possibly walk away from the spectrum of light, and the spectrum of inner peace you travel through during that 15 minute period of sunset till dusk.
Back to reality. We live in a world of Internet, MP3 players, telephones that think they are MP3 players, freeway systems, global economies, containers, refineries, Vegas, war, poverty, and opulence that either thrills or disgusts - depending on your point of view.
But the sunset, that is also reality. It has seduced beach goers and horizon viewers for thousands of years, and still is able to put us into a surreal trance without interference from the latest techno gadget or global crisis. Add a couple of circling seagulls, a pod of dolphins jumping on the glimmering copper colored ocean, and maybe even a sailboat off on the horizon, and even the toughest person will take a pause.