Tuesday, August 02, 2022

Where I touch airplane skin

Pause before flight
Hamilton, ON
July 2022
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I have a strange personal ritual whenever I fly: as I board the plane, I place my right hand on the outside of the fuselage just to the right of the doorway.

I’ll leave it there for a quick second, just long enough to feel the coolness of the alloy skin. Then, before the folks behind me start to sharpen their pitchforks, I’ll step inside and say hi to the heroes responsible for getting us to our destination safely.

I can’t explain why I do any of this. I think I started it as a way of grounding myself, of connecting with the aircraft in some strange way, and of giving myself a quiet moment of reflection before a long journey.

It isn’t just limited to planes. I’ve been touching things before departure - cars, bikes, boats, whatever machine I’m about to board - for as long as I can remember. It makes me feel better. In control, even.

That word, though: feel.

Travel isn’t just something we do to get from here to there. At every stage of the journey, I’d like to think that we’re feeling something special or different. That we’re deliberately trying to savor the experience in some way, to remember how a given trip changes us.

It’s why we travel at all, and I’m guessing a palmprint on aluminum and a quickly stolen photo makes a normally forgettable moment in transit something to be held onto long after we’ve arrived at our destination.

#hamilton #international #airport #ontario #canada #yhm #road #trip #roadtrip #travel #travelphotography #travelgram #swoop #flight #flying #aviation #boeing #boeing737 #avgeek #plane #planes #nikon #nikon_photography #nikonphotography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Related:
One blue plane, December 2019
Pretty plane, January 2007
Silhouette, August 2005

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