En Route

Sitting awake in the slightly depressurized gloom of a jumbo jet, at three in the morning, passing near the North Pole, listening to the powerful drone of the engines, I think to rename this journey. The Monster Carbon Footprint Tour. Several times during the summer I have counted up the number of trees and bushes we have planted in our yard in the past few years: twelve trees and three bushes. Not enough to capture all this carbon, but a start. Over our next meal Anna-Marie points out our salad dressing comes from Australia and our coffee "cream" from California.

Surprisingly, our route out of Toronto is due north. Booking flights our options seemed to be east or west. But our actual flight path takes us over James and Hudson’s Bays, near the North Pole, over Siberia and Eastern China, with a sharp left (east) into Incheon airport. Though the flight is about 16 hours long, it is remarkably easy. We are fed dinner between one and two in the morning, the cabin lights are dimmed, and we are encouraged to sleep fitfully. Each seat contained a little package with socks, a travel toothbrush and mini-tube of paste, and an eye mask. Anna-Marie watches the first movie, Iron Man. Under my eye mask I am oblivious to this, but not certain I slept. I do know thrice my left leg fell asleep, once my left arm, and my butt cheeks also slept fitfully. Many hours later I watch, though don’t listen to, a movie about a teenager, inheritor of special martial arts powers, rebelling against her destiny, seeking teen normalcy and crush/love, finally come to accept her atypical gift while flattening onslaughts of darkly dressed villains. Perhaps you have seen this movie too?