yay the city from the air

Originally uploaded by Liz Henry.

Like the world needs another blurry airplane window photo? Hell yeah. My individual cameraphone makes it holy, I tell you! As we wheeled over the bay from Oakland Airport I had several Big Thoughts, suitable for having on airplanes over and over when one is on an airplane:

- Death will be swift if we crash right now. Not to worry. No control. Wave with it.

- The city is so small! All the cities are so tiny and brave. There’s more empty space all around us than we remember, all the mountains and forests and fields and oceans. And yet all the mountains and forests and stuff have a surprising number of snaky little roads. How is it that we manage to infest the world so thoroughly? And how is it that we haven’t completely carpeted it (yet) with our crap?

- Where exactly is the Suisun Marsh? Or marshes? Where that one woman who wrote “The Flavors of Home” finds wild asparagus and spiritually bonds with the earth by eating its amazing products? Or are these marshes ruined? Will I ever find wild asparagus or will I have to content myself with miner’s lettuce all my life?

- “San Francisco, San Francisco, you’re a muttering bum in a brown beat suit.” (Kerouac.)

- Almost all of the most famous and powerful people and emperors and kings and generals in history that I can think of: they didn’t get to see this amazing view like I’m seeing it. Eat your heart out, Alexander “the Great”… buddy. I can fly. Ha!

I’ll see y’all on the Seattle metroblog for the rest of this week, unless the rain makes me melt.