L U N A T A L K with Eva Moon

…Like a Startled Fawn

April 8, 2009 on 1:24 pm | Join the conversation. You know you want to. | In General Musing

Ideally, a book should last as long as a flight. Air travel is so very nearly intolerable that to have to endure it straight up is beyond contemplation. I’m too cheap to pay airline prices for booze, so books it is. Tragically, the book I brought wrapped up leaving several hours of sky time dangling distressingly before me. I’d already thoroughly ridiculed the fripperies in the Sky Mall magazine on last week’s flight so I was left with the safety card and the airline magazine. There was an editorial on the last page of the magazine about traveling without luggage. This caught my eye.

I love to travel light. I never check bags. I rarely pack more than a few hours before departing and I hate to fuss about it too much. So sometimes I end up thousands of miles from home without some useful item. It’s never been fatal yet. But this was a step beyond. No luggage at all.

The writer had injured his back as a young man and decided to recuperate in some exotic local rather than at home. Doctor’s orders were to lift nothing. Nada. So he popped a passport and a few personal items into a fanny pack and boarded the plane. He had to wash things out every night, but it was worth it for the experience of feeling gloriously unfettered.

I long for that feeling. Especially after several days of triangulating the gear, supplies and desires of eleven different people into every activity. Getting out the door for a walk – normally a process requiring the grabbing of a jacket and maybe a camera on the way to the door becomes a negotiation on the level of the G20 summit.

But eventually, hats are found, snacks arranged, camera batteries charged, knee braces pulled on, goers and stayers divided, three maps consulted, GPS programmed, car seat musical chairs completed, doors closed and engine started.

At this point we have a traditional thing we say as we breath a final exhasperated sigh…

And we’re off… like a startled fawn.

(It was worth it all in the end. Pictured, right, is Whitewater Falls. The picture is from wikipedia, as I neglected to pack a camera cable.)