Dreamliner

With Eddie falling asleep in the bassinet already before we had finished crossing the Baltic Sea, my first flight with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner could not have come off to a better start. As promised, the windows are visibly larger and equipped with cool electronic blinds, the cabin air does feel somewhat less dry and the “mood” lighting in the ceiling brings at least some of the intended ambiance. So far, so good in other words. Next to me I have a group of actors on their way to Nepal to shoot some commercial and, when boarding, it seemed like Qatar Airways once again had been able to fill an airplane with its distinctive mix of old Philippine ladies in wheelchairs, Emirati people flying premium cabins and European holidaymakers. And yes, the pre-dinner Italian Pinot Grigio tastes more than okay.

With those words, I think I had enough Tyler for one day. The massive barrage of superficiality leaves me somewhat exhausted, uncertain about where to go next and to what extent my professional role as a university professor constrains what I can or should say. Perhaps, all I want to say is that it is painful to see the suffering of this world, to learn about those heinous chemical attacks on children in Syria and so brutally face our collective shortcomings as a species. This is 2013. Not 1943. We should not be here yet I am afraid it will take much more of the same until we wake up to our shared responsibilities and fully recognize our common humanity.

Crossing over Ukrainian airspace. A little more than four hours to go until Doha. I think about the roles we play, how much more most men talk than most women, their lecturing style and narcissistic obsession with their own trivial anecdotes. I guess I am also guilty of doing this at times. And I guess all we can do is to remain self-critical and to rethink our own behaviour, to aspire for something better rather than settling for what we are.

(and yes, all this was posted using the inflight-internet)