We have been traveling of late. With our two children living at geographic points some 5,500 miles apart from each other, with the California kids living 2,600 miles from us and the London kids living 3,600 miles (all distances are rounded to the nearest number), if we want to get together as a family--we travel.
And that does mean planes, trains and automobiles! Many times over.
We just returned from London. And soon we will travel to San Diego. These trips are lovely, and always anticipated. What great places to visit: San Diego with its near perfect weather year round, with the ocean within a few miles, with charming geography, with great restaurants, with the beach to drive along or walk along...what's not to like. And London with its not so perfect weather, with the ocean no more than a train ride or drive away, with its wondrous history, with great restaurants, and parks to walk in...what's not to like.
Of course, the real reason we go either place is to visit our children, their spouses, and our granddaughter. That means that wherever they lived, we would travel to see them. But what a bonus having two such wonderful places to visit.
Traveling always makes me ruminate on the means of travel. A cruise makes me think of the days of sailing--when ships were the only means to travel great distances. Ships today which carry passengers are vastly different from ships of decades and centuries ago. No doubt, the early European immigrants who braved ocean voyages would be gob-smacked to see the obscenely over-sized cruise ships that stuff the vessel to the gills and then stuff the passengers likewise to the gills.
Planes shoved ships out of the way as the glamorous way to travel, and have been going down hill ever since. It is quite fun to look at old ads for airlines. The glamorous way to travel, indeed. On our most recent flight, when my husband checked us in online he snagged the bulk-head seats for us which meant we had legroom. One practically kills for legroom on flights these days. If we had sat in the usual seats in steerage, oops I mean economy class, we would have had about 30 inches of "seat pitch." That's airline speak for legroom. And that's before the guy in front of you decides to recline his seat the full amount. You can end up with the video monitor inches from your face. But--I digress.
During our various visits to England, we have taken several day trips--all by train. Now, I love trains. They continue to be my favorite way of travel. Having grown up in what was then Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), I with my parents traveled multiple times by train. Of course the trains there had individual passenger cars, so we as a family had our own room--complete with fold-down bunk beds where we slept on the journey. About a decade ago, my husband, daughter and I made a trip to Spain, and we took an overnight train from Madrid to Granada. That trip (where I had my wallet pinched) included a small sleeping berth for my daughter and me. Not quite the same as the family cars of my childhood, and of course my husband was left to fend for himself elsewhere.
Trains today in England as quite efficient and immensely apologetic if they get off schedule or are delayed. Frankly, since our trips are for our own leisure, we can be a bit sanguine and not mind the delays. Plus we have great fun with the youngest passenger in our group.
We have also used the underground trains in a number of cities we visit. The London Tube is something I have not mastered--but thankfully we have an excellent guide in our daughter.
Which brings me to the last mode of transportation--automobiles. The United States once had a flourishing train system, but that was pushed aside with the building of the interstate system. Passenger trains now vie with transport trains for track use--and in fact Amtrak has no tracks of its own, so it can be pushed aside. Interstate highways beckon--taking us where trains no longer go.
I learned to drive when I was 20 years old. From the outset, I have loved driving. In my career, there were times when I had to travel some distance--and driving was frequently an option. I still enjoy driving. However, driving in southern California has put a whole new challenge into driving. During our first trip to San Diego (and every subsequent trip) we rented a car. You can't get anywhere in southern California without driving. As we left the airport, we followed the GPS instructions to get to the freeway--and then we ROLLED. People do not drive in southern California--they roll. You merge as quickly as you can onto the freeway and then you keep moving. If you change lanes, you just do it. I am sure local drivers can always spot an out-of-stater--we use turn signals. That's a rarity in southern California. There is one place where we out-of-staters can shine over California drivers--we know how to drive in rain. And ice. And snow...sometimes.
Planes, trains and automobiles. Love them all! (And ships...but they weren't mentioned in the title.)
During World War II, the British government prepared a motivational poster designed to help the beleaguered population "keep its stiff upper lip." The slogan it championed was--KEEP CALM and CARRY ON. Millions of posters were printed, but they were never distributed. The posters were rediscovered in the year 2000--and a whole new icon was born.
I humbly suggest we get some of those posters and distributed them NOW--to members of Congress, to newscasters, to local politicians, to everyone who is now freaking out about Ebola.
I am not suggesting that we take this emerging epidemic lightly. But we really need to get a grip. There were Congressional hearings held today, and legislators took their turns when it was their time to query--and took whacks at the head of the CDC as if he were a piñata hanging from the ceiling and they each had a brand new stick to flail away at him.
I couldn't help but recall the beginnings of the AIDS epidemic. And how little concern there was among politicians then. Medical personnel knew they had a mystery disease on their hands. Perhaps the fact the earliest people suffering, and then dying from this disease, were gay was part of the reason for the studied ignoring of the emerging epidemic.
When AIDS first emerged as a true epidemic, I was working for the state medical society. Part of my job was to work with scientific areas--so I helped staff committees of physicians who were trying to address the disease that was eventually called Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome--AIDS. One day, I got a call from a public health doctor working at the state Health Department. The Health Department had prepared an informative brochure with tips on how to prevent the spread of AIDS. One of the precautions listed was to "wash." When the pamphlet was sent to the governor's office for vetting, the question came back--wash what? When they were told, they insisted that precaution be removed! The level of ignorance--or lack of caring--was such that the governor's office then did not want to acknowledge that part of the means whereby AIDS was spread was unprotected sex. And that knowledge, not ignorance, was one way to help reduce transmission.
Fast forward 30 some years--and now we have legislative hysteria ruling the day. Frankly, ignoring an emerging epidemic is NOT the way to control the disease. But then, hysterical misguided politically-driven suggestions are ALSO NOT the way to control the disease.
In today's hearing, one of the suggestions was--REFUSE TO ALLOW ANYONE TO ENTER THE U.S. who is traveling from a west African location. Really? Well, people can travel from countries in west Africa to many other countries and then enter to U.S. Only, now, public health professionals wouldn't KNOW the person had been in west Africa. One of the biggest enemies of controlling an epidemic is ignorance. Another enemy is fear.
We have both in abundance right now. To hear the newscasters tell it, it's just a matter of time until everyone touches something that someone who heard about someone who had Ebola touched, and so because of that, we will all die.
Well, true--we will. But not from Ebola. There will be some other reason. Many things are so much more threatening--smoking. Handguns. Drunk drivers. Texting drivers. Lack of immunization. Polluted drinking water. And on and on it goes.
It seems like a good time to break out the posters--KEEP CALM and CARRY ON.
