with all of this movement, something's got to give

When my childhood friend, Jared, first got to college and was asked to write for his first important essay on architecture, about the design of the most influential building he could think of, he picked the airport. It makes sense. Not necessarily for design, but for the emotional moments that took place there. Maybe he was biased-- after all, this was 2000, when you could still walk your loved ones to and greet them at their actual gate. And our friends had all just actually gone to the airport together to see each other off on our ways to separate colleges. 


So it seems, and has to me for a long long time, that there really does have to be a way to make the actual experience of flying somewhat closer to the experience of what you're flying for in the first place. Those moments when you're reunited with a loved one, off on an adventure etc etc.


I mean, think  of how you feel in the moments before you take off on a roadtrip! At least for me, I don't fill up with the sense of dread and anxiety about what I know awaits me the way I do when I'm headed for the airport. I don't worry about having to strip or having my bobby pins confiscated from me (true story! They took them away very snottily and said they could be used as a weapon. To which I said, sure, I supposed anything could be a weapon, but isn't the whole thing behind any weapon you wield that the person you wave it at actually be INTIMIDATED by it? I mean, sure, I could try to poke someone's eye out with my bobby pin I suppose, but I'm guessing they'd fall on the floor laughing before I ever got close.)


I'm obsessed with movement. I have-- what seems to be-- about a 4-5 year expiration date on any place I land, and getting trapped without being able to go somewhere or do something, being strapped to a desk, basically makes me miserable. I'm constantly writing about movement. About running, about jumping, about the sound of tires on pavement and late night drives, about flying. I wrote a character who's petrified to tell her mother she'd rather be a flight attendant than a lawyer. 


So I am particularly distressed by the state of airlines and  the experience of flying. Delays, strikes, fees, and don't ever be tempted to look out the window if you see baggage handlers loading the baggage onto the plane. You'll cringe. They throw when they could just as easily set it down. 


My point is this: we are a really smart group. Think! of all the things we, the human race, have solved and been able to do! We went to the moon, invented computers and ipods and even eventually how to stop that oil leakage in the gulf. So I have to believe that SOMEONE OUT THERE is smart enough to figure out a way to make flying NOT AWFUL. With no fees to pee, or to bring luggage on or check luggage, etc.  I know I'm not that person, but someone must be smart enough, right? Flying on planes is too much a part of the basic ways we get around now. That's how people commute on a very regular basis. It's clear that the airlines aren't really profitable businesses at this point, so someone else should take them over. Someone out there's got to be creative enough to fix this industry. Anyone?

The galling thing is that the airlines reserve the right to cancel or change flights themselves, without penalty. And the increase is out of proportion to what it costs an airline to rebook, now that everything is handled electronically: five years ago, fees were $20 to $100 for a domestic flight.

Yes, you can now pay a fee to possibly reduce your fees, and that is not a late-night monologue joke.