Transient Thoughts…

I wrote this piece whilst waiting in London, Heathrow. I read it to a few friends and they insisted I post it.

So I’m sitting in Heathrow… I’ve made it back to where it all began. Things are a little different. I’m not sure if I’m allowed in the business class lounge for one thing. But I’m just an observer of humanity.

Just in front of me and little to my left is a guy that could only really be described as startlingly good-looking. A deep tan, short, thick, blond hair, and bright blue eyes. He is dressed stylishly in a striped long-sleeve shirt and skinny jeans with leather boots. About 2 metres tall, 77-80 kilos….

sleeping girl in front of me directly, she seems to be in the state one often reaches when traveling for longer than 24 hours. the seats in this area aren’t good for sleeping due to the armrests which don’t move. So she is leaning on her pink backpack for a pillow and her pink jacket is covering her legs, which are clothed in black leggings and jean-shorts. She has short brown hair with square glasses open at the bottom… about 5’5″, of asian descent.

This description doesn’t interest me any longer… what are people are doing? What motivates them? How are the dressed and what does that mean? I just realized I’m wearing plaid on checkered…. This might explain the weird looks. but I also haven’t slept, which might explain the paranoia… and the wardrobe choices.

When I come to the airport I always dress comfortably, but sharply. I have heard of different styles of travel garb, but this one I think is the most prevalent. Whilst traveling the people around you have only your clothes to judge you by. People spend the entire time sitting around trying not to stare at each other, for me at least, I want them to have a narrative which lends itself well to the imagination.

I suppose that is what this entire exercise is about, imagination. I want someone to come over to me, sit down, and start talking (to me preferably). But I want to have a three hour airport fling. A small crush, with a rush of excitement and a flash of possibility, perhaps with a french girl.

Perhaps more so I’m in earnest in my desire to not sit here alone for three hours. Why do we need human connection? I don’t get it. It seems so simple, we are alone. I know myself well enough to say truthfully that my own thoughts are more than adequate to keep me entertained for days. So why do I still want to talk?

So I see someone… she looks really interesting, and she is sitting there alone watching people as well as i am…. I don’t know the right thing to do. No, that isn’t quite it. Truthfully, I don’t know the best thing to do. I know what I want the outcome to be, but I don’t know how to achieve it. I want to talk to her…. I want to sit with her and have a feeling of instantaneous mutual understanding.

I forgot about the gift of revelations! I just have to ask God what to do, and he will tell me. Cause he is always good like that.

Alright, I went and got a sandwich and some water… by the time I got back the girl was asleep, which I took as a sign to leave her alone. But As I was eating, I was reading C. Wright Mills and his sociological imagination. He brought up an interesting point, (actually he was attempting to disapprove of the use of Simmel) but it got me thinking about Simmel.

Simmel says that the POV of the stranger is the most interesting and important perspective for various reasons which I may or may not explain here.

But I think in an airport, we are all strangers. The stranger has the ability to see things in a situation where those native to the place can’t, kinda like a sociologist, or a psychologist, or any number of “ists” but the strangers lack of permanence makes him special. His choice gives him power. Oddly enough in an airport the strangers are the ones that don’t see everything. An airport is designed to conceal the actual workings of our transportation systems. and those that stay here can see the things we can’t… another aspect of Simmel’s theoretical framework is the overloading effect of modernity and the metropolis. I am inclined to agree. Simmel says that when the senses are overloaded we start to block out input… which certainly would explain the blank stares I’m seeing around me right now. yeah… I’m certain the stuff around me is determined to overwhelm into buying their products by the sheer weight of the images on my retina.