Homeward Bound

“Other things may change us, but we start and end with family”
Anthony Brandt


I've spent the past 11 hours in seat 52B watching the little airplane on the mini-screen in front of me as it headed away from England, passed south of Iceland and Greenland, inched across Toronto and Ontario, and slid down the west coast. I was at 33,000 ft and moving at 850 miles an hour. I began to wonder whether modern travel has diminished our appreciation of the journey. 24 hours ago, I was in a third world country where more than half of the population lives on less than $1.25 a day. Now, I find myself sitting in a pub in LAX eating bad fish & chips and drinking a $10 glass of chardonnay, listening to Madonna, and watching Tiger Woods apologize on CNN. Jet lag and culture shock are quickly settling in. Suddenly the trip feels strangely like a bungee jump. I am dangling here unable to remember anything after the initial leap or the free fall that followed. All I know is that in 6 hours I will bounce back into the arms of my family.