Musings from 10,000 feet.

Over the past few weeks, I have done an inordinate amount traveling by plane, which made me reflect on a few things:

- There are several people who have never flown, or have only flown once or twice. While I don't consider myself one of those people who are eligible to be called "frequent fliers," I realized that I cannot calculate with any certainty the amount of flights I have taken in my life. I tried and guessed maybe 50, then the more I thought about it realized it could be more like 100, or even 150. I have no idea.

- This got me thinking of how incredible a thing it is to fly in a plane, but how disinterested most people in the plane are at the takeoff. I try to stop to look out the window and make note of this feat of modern ingenuity - that this massive piece of metal is lifting off of the ground. And yet, I too have gotten to the point that I sometimes busy myself with a magazine or something else, missing this moment.

- When you really think about this, the ridiculous notion that a plane can actually fly is lost on most of us. I would wager that few people could even begin to explain how it is that this large, multi-ton machine can get in the air, yet we are putting complete faith in it. We are putting our lives completely in the hands of something that we know little about, that we could not even begin to explain if we tried. When I think about things like this, it make me all the more frustrated when people are more closed minded about faith, taking the "prove it" attitude, refusing to believe anything until it is conclusively explained in an airtight fashion. When looked at it objectively, there is so much in our lives that we take on complete faith that it is surprising how "scientific" we get when we talk about God.

- Out of courtesy, I try to always pay attention to the flight attendants when they are going through the safety spiel, though I am starting to feel that even the attendants themselves are not really paying attention anymore. Mostly I just enjoy watching how each attendant has their own way of pointing out the exits, some more theatrical than others.

- In these flights, I think that I heard the term "lap baby" for the first time in my life. It sounds like an accessory, like the way tabloid starlets are going through their trendy "baby phase" right now. "This little shaky chihuahua is cute, but I need a baby if I'm going to be hot."