The Strange Duality of Life on the Road

I’ve become strangely used to a life of constant travel. I know the details that matter most to me and those that I’m not concerned about. I can get through security quickly, check into a hotel while half asleep and adjust flights while in the air.

In the office I constantly see new faces, try to learn the names of the new hires before I’m back at 32,000 feet. I take the flex desk upstairs in the heat, step outside to the parking lot for many calls and enjoy the new snacks whenever I can. I maintain a strong connection to my immediate colleagues, without the stronger connection to teams executing the projects that I help bring in. The work of my teammates is incredible and continues to impress me.

At home the political system I used to dedicate my time to continues to roll forward in its meandering ways. A special election for schools that I rarely see, a levy for roads I rarely drive on and the myriad of community issues appear merely as the random calls to my phone, mailers in my overflowing mailbox and occasional emails. The issues are important yet seem far away from 32,000 feet and thousands of miles away.

This is the strange duality of in the air, where the next destination is always ahead and the individual challenges on the ground are far removed from my daily perspective. For me, change is constant. Stasis is almost intolerable and there is a comfort in moving fast.

Some days I look forward to slowing down, to getting rest and enjoying my own mattress and food. The community issues I once cared so deeply about will come into focus again, but with new perspective having seen more of the world. The duality of life at home and in the air will once again synchronize and become one. But I will always look up to the sky and wonder where I could be going next.