Complex Numbers

Sub-liminal Suggestion

https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/sunday-firesides-the-power-of-liminal-sp...

The summer travel season is upon us, and many people are looking forward to spending time in desired destinations. Yet there’s also something special, but easily missed, in the process of getting there — the flights, the road trips, even the layovers at airports.

Look, I get the point of the article. I even agree with it, mostly. But the only saving grace of layovers at airports is the booze.

The article at the link above is in line with what I said a few days ago: that there is no destination; there is only journey.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said that we find “enlarged powers” and “poetic creativeness” not “in staying at home nor yet in traveling, but in transitions from one to the other.” He called these experiences croisements – crossings.

Only pretentious people resort to French. But I'll give RWE a pass on that; he has the right to be pretentious.

I like to refer to them as liminal spaces.

Only even more pretentious people use the word "liminal."

But I especially love a long road trip. I love feeling that no one knows exactly where I am. That I’ve slipped the structures of my ordinary life.

This part, now - it resonates with me. I don't have much to escape from, but I sure do like to escape to. Only quibble is what with GPS and license-plate readers, They know exactly where you are.

Well, whether you agree with these authors about airports or not, I think that cultivating the right attitude helps with travel stress - yours and everyone else's. The right attitude can change from person to person, but it involves accepting where you are and what you're doing, even if it's sitting there waiting for them to call steerage class passengers to board an airplane.

Even if they charge $20 for a goddamn martini.