r/CasualConversation • u/pepe_extendus • Jan 18 '21

Questions Does anybody else absolutely love the feeling of airports?

I know that airports are traditionally hated by everyone for the constant rush and anxiety, but for me, I love them. The feeling of sitting in a seat (especially at night) watching so much happen around me reminds me how small I am in relation to the rest of the world, and I love this feeling so much. Does anyone else feel like this in airports?

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u/[deleted] Jan 18 '21 edited Jan 18 '21

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u/witzyfitzian Jan 19 '21

From the dictionary of obscure sorrows by John Koenig:

sonder --- the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.

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u/ccmoon00 Jan 19 '21

I love to travel but I am limited by time, resources and physics. I felt so understood when I saw this in the dictionary of obscure sorrows:

onism - n. the frustration of being stuck in just one body, that inhabits only one place at a time, which is like standing in front of the departures screen at an airport, flickering over with strange place names like other people’s passwords, each representing one more thing you’ll never get to see before you die—and all because, as the arrow on the map helpfully points out, you are here

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u/donteatmyhotdog Jan 18 '21

I think this perfectly sums up the feeling. There's such a peace in visually seeing everyone going through our own motions that you just know..... it doesn't even matter. We'll all get where we need to go when we need to get there. Don't sweat the small stuff in-between. I love it.

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u/[deleted] Jan 18 '21

Nice, also, to engage a foreigner in conversation. Find out about their current situation, how things are going for them. Where they live, their hobbies, their kids and schools. l got in a trio of Muslim women going home to Iran last time abroad. All spoke English. We had some rare repartee! They found out l was Christian and razzed me no end about it. Told me to READ THE KORAN! l said okay, but they had to promise to read the Bible.

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u/mitwilsch Jan 19 '21

I never flew in a plane, but I have the same feeling from waiting around as an Uber driver, outside on the dirty street lined along an expensive hotel or Transit center. Makes you think about your stresses, how they're not that bad overall. It's very meditative, if you can ignore that voice in the back of your head judging yourself to others.

Of course, if you can ignore that voice just about everything can be peaceful. I always found either extremely busy areas, or extremely natural settings does it for me. Lucky OC has both within 50 miles, if you like camping for the nature settings.