A Revisit: "Everything's Amazing and No One is Happy"

Yeah, flying is so not incredible. ;)
Photo: arjanveen

My brother and I were discussing flight costs of coming home for Thanksgiving. Usually, I would make the drive but the ol' Mazda is feeling her age (poor lass) and needs some surgery before I trek her through more cross-continent journeys. In an expression of mild distaste for the $200 price difference between flying into the major airport and our home (regional) airport, only an hour apart from each other, my brother stated, "Well, that's stupid."

Then he came back with a change of heart.

"Well, I suppose it's not really that stupid—you are asking someone to safely fly you 600mph at 35,000 feet in the air across a continent."

Flying is incredible. Heck, even being able to drive my Mazda deep into Canada's wilds and come safely out without having to repair every part on my car is an insane privilege. Someone actually takes care of all those thousands of miles of roads so I can enjoy and document the beauty of North America.

Well, maybe not specifically for me, but you get the point. What a flipping blessing.

Yet, when something happens to malfunction our lives break down and it becomes the worst day ever. Have you ever stopped to consider how much ease we have at our disposal compared to explorers and everyday people of the past? Heaven forbid my cell phone doesn't get reception in the desert (actually, it rarely gets a signal anywhere—thanks, T-mobile). Instead, I should be grateful for the three places across North America where T-mobile even picks up a signal. It's "going to space"  to make this happen, for heaven's sake.

The conversation with my brother this morning reminded me of the following Conan segment a friend shared with me a while back (Nate Bagley, I believe). You've probably seen it, but it's been long enough that it's been forgotten, and with it, you've forgotten how amazing your life is because of that 99.8%-of-the-time-it-works internet connection. Time to refresh your memory.

Check it, then please, share your thoughts.