It’s Always Sunny is a Frame of Mind
Day 1 of the Europe trip I’ve been looking forward to for months, and I’m stuck at an airport hotel in Philadelphia.
I don’t know what happened, but it reeeaaaally feels like airlines have collectively become incompetent blubbering idiots since COVID. The number of flight delays/disruptions/overbookings/missed connections seems to have skyrocketed, in both my personal experience and that of my friends.
But I digress. As cathartic as it is, bitching and moaning about airline fuckery isn’t helpful to me or anyone.
Last night when I arrived at the airport hotel, the guy at the front desk told me ‘since your flight doesn’t leave til 7, tomorrow morning you can take the shuttle back to the airport and see if the airline will approve another day at the hotel’, presumably because that’s all anyone would want to do in this situation? Rot away in a bed at a comfort inn until you can get back on the road to your actual vacation! This is just a pit stop, the real trip hasn’t started yet.
When god closes a door…
Trite as it is, the underlying wisdom has been said many ways and by many cultures over the ages. When something bad happens you can miss opportunities that are square in front of you because you’re busy moping about the unfairness of it all.
In this case, I got to stay at a hotel for free and have nearly a full day in Philly before my new flight leaves at 7PM. I’ve never been here before and while I’d rather be in Switzerland enjoying cheese fondue with my brother across the pond Benji, I’m here now and might as well make the most of it!
Wherever you go, there you are
Like many people I have absolutely used travel as a form of escapism over the years. There are many problems with that, but one of the main ones at present is “what if the thing you’re trying to escape is yourself?”.
Or as Seneca once said “what’s the point of indulging yourself in endless travel if you always bring your self with you?”(paraphrasing).
Stress and anxiety are at all time highs in my life, so I must say I’m somewhat proud of how cool and composed I’ve stayed throughout this whole process. But that begs the question: what’s the difference between maintaining equanimity in a difficult situation like this and being a pushover?
When the American Airlines employee says we need to wait for an update, I wait patiently even though I can see my overlay window closing rapidly.
When I miss my flight and have to walk back and forth through the Philly airport 3 fuckin times to find someone to help me figure out what to do next, I don’t get angry with the person I finally talk to, and instead try to crack a joke and make light of the situation.
I am incredibly annoyed, but I don’t necessarily feel the same anger about this I would have in the past. This dude just works here, he’s not the one who skipped over the maintenance request that led to the first flight being cancelled. And even that dude was probably just following the schedule laid out by some money grubbing shitbag who thinks of cancelled flights as an acceptable cost for the trade off of money saved elsewhere.
Throwing a fit about all this would a) make these people’s days worse, b) do absolutely nothing to change the outcome of the situation, and c) only further degrade my emotional state, so the only sensible thing to do here is go with the flow.
Is that someone with a zen ability to move through life’s difficulties with ease, or a pushover who just takes what he’s given and doesn’t stand up for himself?
Probably just a matter of perspective if I had to guess. I sincerely hope it’s the former, but the residual echoes in my mind from the culture I grew up in are worried it’s the latter.
Is it always sunny in Philadelphia?
No, it is not.
It’s actually cloudy and rainy here today, but again I’m here now so who gives a shit? I’m gonna go grab a coffee, see some sights, eat a Philly cheesesteak, and enjoy the short time I’ve got here!
Post-Philly update:
It’s actually a pretty dope city! I was able to see some cool historic sites (which Philly has in spades), eat delicious food, and most importantly it gave me some time to aimlessly wander a new place on my own. This led to some cool unexpected discoveries, and gave me the time/space to process the work stress I’ve been under lately and fully switch to vacation mode!
Even though my Switzerland time was shorter, arriving in a vacation headspace meant that the time I did have there was higher quality than it would’ve been otherwise, so that’s something!
Now I’m in Munich enjoying more quality time with awesome friends, partying my ass off at Oktoberfest, and loving every minute of it!
So to bring it back to the original point: freaking out over little things, especially ones outside your control, can pollute your entire experience of a thing. Take it in stride and play the board as it lies, you might find opportunities where you least expect them!
Or as Michael Franti says:
Post-trip update with a 1.5 month delay to ponder further:
I didn’t actually wait this long intentionally to give myself time to process the ordeal, I'm just lazy and forgetful.
But with that time came some amount of clarity, and I have to say I’m pretty happy with how I handled the situation. Wherever you go, there you are. Have fun with the time you’ve got, even if things don’t turn out exactly as you’d planned all you can do is act accordingly. Bumps on the road are inevitable, so make the most of it!
Ok, that’s enough trite wisdom for a weeks worth of wannabe Instagram life coach shitposting. You get the idea.
C’est la vie! 🤘
