This Week Has Been a Whole Year

This week I had to travel back east to help manage a family emergency. This took me, unfortunately, through the Charlotte airport, which may be one of the worst airports I’ve ever been in. And I’ve been in an airport in Cape Verde at 2 a.m. And Newark airport. And LAX. You get my point. It was bad. On the first leg of the journey, I missed a connection because my inbound flight was delayed and the crowds in terminal C were so thick that it was like being in the Oakland Arena hallway during a Warriors game or in line for swag at a Taylor Swift concert (I assume). Very very crowded. And the gates are very far apart.

On the way home, my gate was moved three times, the crowds were still oppressive, and my flight was delayed for more than two hours. I finally found some respite in the hallway outside the chapel, where I had the view that I captured above. Thank the goddess that man’s pants covered his full backside.

I flew American Airlines. I don’t understand why Southwest is considered a budget airline when it is a fucking luxury by comparison. Oh, I guess because it’s less expensive. American makes their staff, both in flight and at customer service, shill for their credit card. I heard their pitch at least six times, promising me untold riches (in frequent flier miles) if I sign up. The whole experience suggested to me that American has decided to become a financial services company instead of an air carrier.

One of the ways I diverted myself during my long and lonely trip was to practice Italian on Duolingo (my username is Elscob if you want to follow me there). I am on the unit about jobs, and the new vocabulary that I have learned is an interesting reflection on the nature of work. The three adjectives they teach are noioso (boring), stressante (stressful), and difficile (difficult). Occasionally they throw in divertente (fun) but only when talking about being a cuoco/cuoca (cook), which I think most cooks would disagree with. Being a cuoca seems stressante to me.

I didn’t have too many other diversions because I was focused on dealing with the exigent circumstances of my trip but I did read Annie Erneaux’s The Years. Recall that Erneaux (like Paul Auster) was an author I was embarrassed to have never read, and I am very glad to have filled this gap, and will look for her other works. The Years is a personal and collective memoir, like a telescoping lens that looks closely at her personal experience from her birth during WW2 until 2007 but also tracks the cultural and historical events she witnessed in France and internationally. She describes photographs and family meals and social unrest with the same level of specificity and affection. I recommend it.

I am also reading The Freaks Come Out to Write, an oral history of the Village Voice, which is so entertaining. I’m not done yet but I will be recommending it a lot, I think.

Finally, my visit to North Carolina reminded me of an observation I have quite often when I visit other parts of the country, which is that we have trashed this country. Large swaths of trees cut down to build hideous housing or nothing at all. Widening highways in empty corridors in counties whose populations are dwindling. Punitive, angry, proselytizing billboards everywhere. Rusted out cars everywhere. Every home a warehouse of poorly made goods that would overwhelm the many landfills we’ve created. Crumbling infrastructure being conquered by invasive plant species and rust.

This isn’t a North Carolina problem. I’ve seen it in Illinois and Virginia and California. We are not a developed country; we are an un-developing country, a decaying country. The Bay Area isn’t exempt. We’re just trashing it by treating our unhoused neighbors like we think they are vermin, refusing to build, grow, change.

Ugh. Anyway, you can probably tell I’m not in the best mood. I’m going to work on having a nice weekend, hugging the people I love. I hope you can do the same.