--Pretentious stuff out of the way first. Riding through the streets of New York on my way from the airport, I was struck by how many different types of beauty there are. One of my favorite things about Charlottesville is the scenery, the hills, the open space, the trees, the green...
I'm an east coaster from the burbs, and I've always found this landscape just lovely. And yet, while I am far from a natural New Yorker, there is something that strikes me about urban beauty as well. Tall buildings, architectural contrast, the glint of the sun off the glass windows..
The world is full of different places and different views and it's just kind of lucky that so many of them are beautiful in their own ways.
--Philosophy stuff out of the way too. While flying out of Laguardia, we got stopped in a traffic jam on the runway. About ten planes lined up, waiting for the turn to take off.
We can create thousands of machines that fly us 3,000 feet in the air, but we can't figure out how not to run them into each other on the ground. Makes you wonder how much we really know about all the cool stuff we're doing. All the progress with technology, medicine, etc, and we don't really have any idea of the consequences or how we manage these great advances. I'm not saying that means we shouldn't continue to make them--what's the alternative? But it makes you wonder how much more conscious we need to of the things we'll dealing with.
--Lighter stuff. The flight attendant on the flight up called me "Miss." I remember the first time I was a ma'am--I was sixteen and walking out of the Ritz Carlton. The hair had grown out from the unfortunate Afro and the big blue specked glasses had changed to small wire rimmed ones. I was ready to be a "ma'am." Now I feel a bit aged when I get it. On the other hand, having the flight attendant call me "Miss" was a bit deflating. Do I look that young? That unprofessional? That much like a UVA student? Shudder. He got some dagger eyes from me all during the flight. And then, as I disembarked, he smiled at the lady in her 60's right in front of me and said, "Thank you Miss, have a good day."
Dignity restored.
Finally, they may not be hunters, but they have other uses:
Laundry anyone?
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