Usually when I board an airplane, I have a vague anxiety that the world will be an utterly different place when i return. It's an anxiety borne of experience -- one time I got on a plane and while I was gone half of lower manhatten was exploded -- and it's one I feel every time i take off, passport in hand. More than the concern of being trapped far from home (as I was in 2001 - in Amsterdam of all places!) what grips me most is my fear that i would miss out on something momentous, and will be unable to share it with friends. When they told us to extinguish our electronic devices, I got a call from the Sky crew that everything looked good. Just then it was time to take off and -- like that! -- I was out of contact with the rest of you, Matt Gerloff's tipsy euphoria ringing sweetly in my ears...
Somewhere over Utah, I stood up to use the bathroom. This is a habit I enjoy even more now after you-know-which shitty state funded the passing of California Prop 8. Anyway, upon my return the captain came aboard the radio and told us all -- CNN projected Barack Obama had won the presidency. A mild euphoria arose across the aisles, and I do believe I high-fived a business traveller or two. And when I sat down and turned to radio channel 9 -- there, somewhere high over the wasatch range -- i listened to Obama's address from Grant Park, Chicago. Grant Park, where my mom took me to see your 1991 world champion Chicago Bull's victory parade. It all came together so quickly ... a beautiful trinity high over the Red plains below -- mother, city, country. And when it was all over, I poured myself a victory gin and tonic, and I raised it high to no one and everyone in particular. I took a sip and looked out the window. I could not help but notice how happy i looked in reflection, and how even in the most separate/removed/airborne conditions, I could feel so completely home.
