Surprise Airports
a trip!
Dear Emily Writes Back readers,
Yesterday morning I woke at a little past 4 in the morning and lay in the dark feeling a firm but unidentifiable emotion. I’d had a dream about wanting to give my mom a blouse, but not being able to find her. Completely awake, I got out of bed and logged onto the computer, went to Expedia, and bought a plane ticket to California, where I knew she was headed soon to visit my brother and his family.
And now, one workday later, I am in the Newark Airport drinking too-strong Starbucks coffee and taking in the sights: Black people of every shade (Hello, my people, I have missed you!), toddlers day trading on iPads, harried yet all-knowing food service workers who have taken the measure of humanity and it’s not great, fancy white men my husband’s age wearing decorative scarves and expensive looking shoes (if I were a man, I don’t think I would dress like that. I’d dress in modest, sturdy work clothes and wear spicy cologne and keep whatever paperback philosophy book I was currently reading in my back pocket. And I’d bring back casual winking).
It turns out that my little sissy, Kate, is also headed to California this very second, so it will be a family reunion!
This trip is also something new. Impulsive yes, but this is my one life, and I don’t care much about solar eclipses. I saw a good one in 1979, and I’m already fully alive to the fact that we live on a spherical planet and that there are other planets and sometimes they line up in different ways and shadows are cast. While the sun is in shadow, I may be playing canasta with my blood relatives and holding a baby’s tiny foot in the palm of my hand.
It might be a side-effect of working at a hospice (last night was my volunteer shift in the patient residence) that you start to feel like you will probably die pretty soon yourself, an attitude not conducive to conservative spending.
Travel is the best. I bet in the next few days you’ll get a steady stream of reports from me from the great state of California.
And, harking back to this newsletter’s advice column/epistolary roots, please feel free to write me with any conundrums or questions or prompts, because travel makes me very clear-headed.
xoxo
Emily
YES!!! For spontaneous trips and tiny baby feet and seeing your people and too-strong coffee. Indeed the stars and planets do sometimes line up and we have limited time to be part of any of it. There is no better hospice side-effect than that. Signed, your friend on the twice-rescheduled bus to NYC
So many good things in this! I was just asking someone the other day where all the black people were in this town? I had my young years in Dade City Fla (super racist back then, got kicked out of town for dating a black guy!), but I still had tons of black friends! Also, my thoughts on the eclipse are close to your level. I haven't seen one so I will enjoy the spectacle, but I don't think it's magical. And what an ego to have in thinking we are the only life in this vastness! For the most part, going out would be slightly faded jeans and pastel cotton button downs with the sleeves folded to mid forearm (showing the work man's muscle). Clean tennis shoes or work boots. Love the casual winking! No smarm! The main thing (I think) that separates us from other life on this planet is that we know from the get go that we will die. I'm always amazed ( and a bit envious, I'll admit) when someone is surprised about that. What would it be like to go through the day without that knowledge floating around in there somewhere?
You are always such a pleasure and inspiration to read! Will be joining in soon. Enjoy your family comforts to the fullest!