"Beauty confronts us with the requirement that we place ourselves among...the redeemers, the leaders in the protection of life. Once you have seen the bush on fire, you are not going to get out of the assignment unless you close your eyes to the beauty.... [You] either have to close your eyes or go back to Egypt and set the people free." - Rev. Dr. Rebecca Parker, "Rising to the Challenge of Our Times"

Thursday, April 27, 2006

I been everywhere, man

Home after a tour of 4 different airports in 5 days and a total of nine airport visits. I was in Sacramento three different times, Phoenix three times, Las Vegas once, and Atlanta twice. No wonder I was starting to feel like I'd died and gone to hell by the time I arrived in Sacramento last night at 11:30 pm.

Still, my final destinations in Flagstaff AZ and Atlanta GA and Sacramento CA (and home, of course) made it worth enduring the noise and bad, stale air and lack of edible food. I underestimated how wearying the travel would be. AmericaWest / U.S. Airlines features the world's least comfortable airplane seats (especially on their Canadair jet, the seats make you feel like you're being swallowed by a giant clam) and a landing gear motor that sounded like it needed some WD-40. If not for the likelihood of visiting my friends in Arizona again, I would probably avoid AW in the future, or I'll just try to spend the whole flight in the lavatory where the seats are more comfortable.

Now that the snide complaining is out of the way I will try to get around to discussing the purpose of the trips, and what I learned. Just like a human to dwell on the physical discomforts at the expense of exploring the deeper meaning. But I'm in some serious sleep debt and I'd like to doze off sitting next to Ce while she watches one of the NFL films she lined up on our Netflix queue to fill the void of my absence. On Sunday I'm driving to Oakland for yet another conference, but it's on elder financial abuse prevention / litigation and I didn't want to miss it. I don't know why, but I love going to conferences, because you can go and learn without the pressure and there are lots of snacks and free pens and stuff. It won't involve visiting the inside of any airports so I think I can handle it.

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