Track 3 - Going Deep

Airplanes give you a lot of time to think. Take today for example, I made sure I had a couple DVDs with me to pass the time as I cross the United States in two tin cans that should never be able to fly but somehow do. I was running late because I forgot my phone and had to go back and get it. As I hurried to board the plane I was the last passenger on, yeah, I was that guy. The guy that opens all the over head bins actually expecting to find one empty to store my carry on while everyone else sits there staring at me knowing good and well they are all full because they have been on the plane for 20 mins and Mr. Last-One-On acts surprised to find no room. I gave up my search as the know-it-all college kids scoffed, "they're all full, man." I know but excuse me if I want to feed the insatiable curiosity inside me to open just one more bin. Upon realizing I was that guy, I took my roller back up to the front of the plane and asked the flight attendant to check it for me. Here is where I tie everything together. Moments after sitting down without my bag accessible, I realizes I left my headphones in the carry on. Here I am, laptop, two movies, and no headphones to enjoy them with. Ahead of me lay a three hour flight with no distraction. I mean come on, there is no way I am going to spend the time chatting with my neighbor, the young guy with the premature graying, short khaki shorts with glaringly white legs, reading Eat, Pray, Love. No joke and if you have read my early tracks, you know how I feel about that. You mean I was going to be alone with my thoughts? That is a scary proposition.

Let's jump back to those headphones that I longed for and had no way of retrieving. It is that very pair of headphones that sparked these thoughts. Yesterday, I was returning home from California. As I unzipped the protective case to my Bose Quiet Comfort 15 Noise Canceling headphones, the guy sitting next to me without transparent pale legs, actually, he may have had them also but thankfully, he had them covered up. Focus, focus ok, he said, "Nice headphones. Must be great to tune everything out." I responded with a quick quip and said, "It is but I really wanted a pair of kid kicking the back of my seat canceling headphones but couldn't find any." He laughed and I considered that as fulfilling my neighborly responsibilities and slipped them over my ears. Instantly, with a flip of the switch, good-bye engine noise, hasta luego uninteresting conversation of the guy from Montana that designs eye glass manufacturing software pitching his career to the young woman next to him as if he were Matthew McConaughey talking about his upcoming role in a new cliche rom-com, and hello sanctuary.

The world is full of chaos. Being a spiritual person with a strong faith in God, I view the world as being full of moral polluters, temptations, and filth. I'm not getting on my soap box and going to start a rant about morality or the wickedness of the world. Instead, I am just relating it to my noise canceling headphones. I was taught my whole life to have faith in God. It has been a strength for me through many difficult times in my life. I find peace in believing there is more to life than just hooking up with whatever will let me, yeah I chose the word whatever, getting drunk to the point I pass out with my hand in the toilet and my body squeezed in between the toilet and wall like one of my college roommates loved to do, or searching out a temporary high huffing the trapped methane from house hold cleaners or decomposing human feces. Yep, people do that, its called jenkum. Don't ask why I know that. I relish the fact that I have something that keeps me grounded. Something that I can turn to when dreary reality around me invades my space and touches too close to home for comfort. To me, faith and the teachings that built it in me are just like my noise canceling headphones the difference being, I am not blocking out the crying baby three rows back because his ears won't pop, instead, I am blocking out the ruckus of the world. Those are my thoughts, judge them as you may.