A Call for Zen

I really hate travel. I long for the travel technique explained in Jonathan Livingston Seagull, "perfect speed." Just think about being there and you are there.

This trip got off to a strange start. After weeks and weeks of planning, the last of the items on my packing checklist had been completed, and over 4 hours early. I should have known at that point that something was wrong. I called a cab company and set an appointment for a 7:15 pick-up so I could easily make my 8:00 bus to LAX.

A little after 7 I took my bags out to the garage and waited. And waited. At 7:25 I put the bags in my trunk. At 7:30 I drove off for the bus station. At 7:33 the cabbie called me to say he was outside. When I pointed out to him that he was very late he said he'd been waiting for 10 minutes. Homicide crossed my mind. My bigger worry, though, was that there would be no parking available at the bus station. That happened to me for Michele's wedding and I had to drive all the way to LAX to find a parking spot. My effort to avoid that problem this time by taking a taxi didn't seem to work out either. This time there were several parking spots available, though, so all was well in spite of the late cabbie.

My trips seem to have a way of starting out wrong. The aforementioned wedding trip is one example. The rental car fiasco preceding our trip to Montreal last year is another. Those trips turned out to be fantastic, though, so I'm sure this one will as well.

The early irritation was a good reminder that I have to take a Zen approach to survive these travel experiences. My 12 plus hour flight to Seoul is followed by a 12-hour layover for my flight to Bangkok. A total shut-down of all mental activity is absolutely mandatory.