Lessons learned from the perspectives of a fellow traveler.

This entry was originally written on August 12, 2007.

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I forgot my MP3 player, again. I haven’t had it for weeks. I can’t even say for sure where it is.

Quite distressing.

So on the second leg of my trip – cross country from Philadelphia to Seattle – I had to get a free-bee headset from the attendant to listen to the movie. “Spiderman 3” is the selection of the evening, and although it’s playing and I can watch it and hear it, the video screen quality is so bad I’m not even tempted to pay attention to it.

Instead I’m writing on my laptop. Writing this, of course.

My mind is tied around the conversations I’ve had with you today. So wonderful. For hours we were able to talk on the phone – today while I prepared for my travel, while I sat and waited for my connecting flight. It was wonderful – we make each other laugh all the time, I can’t imagine better conversations.

I glance at the little LCD screen to check out the movie. The shadowed areas are awash as if they were photographic negatives. Difficult to watch and painful to focus on. Especially the action scenes. My headache begins screaming every time I glance up.

Time for music.

My flight from Buffalo to Philadelphia was amazing. On time. We landed in Philly and didn’t even have to taxi to the gate – just hit the end of the runway, made a right turn and we were there. Didn’t have to wait for a plane to leave the gate, didn’t have to wait for a ground crew to guide the plane in or move the jetway – all the pieces were in place.

Just as it should be but never is.

I must be in some bizarro world today.

Even more interesting was my conversation with the gentleman next to me on the flight. His name is Shahryar, and he originally hails from Tehran, Iran. He does consultant work for IBM and has been traveling to Philadelphia weekly for over a month.

It’s amazing to speak to someone, intelligently, who has a different view of the world from my own. Different from anyone I know. He’s from a different culture and can see the world beyond the borders of America, which is quite unique from the garden variety traveler I sit next to virtually every flight.

Interesting tid-bits of insight:

Iran, of all the middle-eastern countries, is the least conservative. In Shahryar’s view, even under the Ayatollah, Iran is practically a liberated society compared to places like Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. The people and government of Iran actually like America for the most part – a concept far off of what our media would impress upon us.

We discussed the Bush administration and how it differs from the Clinton administration. How Bush focuses mainly on oil, resources and the industrial military complex – where Clinton focused on industry on the whole. During the Clinton administration, American auto manufacturers regained prominence on the world market. Since Bush has taken office the market has been virtually dominated by the Japanese companies.

We discussed our general disdain for our car rental companies trying to give us cars like a Ford Taurus or a Chevy Impala. They’re crap. Give us something decent for our money.

We discussed the war in Iraq. The Bush administration deemed it necessary and duped (or tried to dupe) the world into allowing it. The military out sources everything from tanks to bottle of Coke for thousands more than the American economy would support, when selling it to the military.

He feels America would really be doing the world and ourselves a huge injustice by attempting any military action in Iran. By sheer numbers alone – Iran is the most heavily populated of all Middle-Eastern nations – if Iraq’s insurgency is difficult to contend with, Iran’s would be impossible.

Regardless, he said America doesn’t realize they’ve already conquered the world without flexing their military muscle. Between the Hollywood influence on those cultures (in India for example) and the TV influence; did you know there is an “Arabia Idol” in the Middle East that is as popular as American Idol is here?

We discussed the military actions of Saddam Hussein in the 1980’s. His wife was working in the northern areas of Iran near the Iraq border when thousands of Shiites were brought in with chemical burns from the weaponry the Iraqi military was using on their villages. Many of the victims were purposefully transported to European medical facilities in an attempt to bring attention to the injustices the Hussein regime were perpetrating, but for the most part the world didn’t even blink.

Shahryar’s view of America was a little different from concepts I’ve been taught and believed in over my life. Of course, he is a good twenty years older than I. He has traveled the world, from Asia to the far reaches of South America. Places I dream of traveling to.

Perhaps, someday.

In his opinion, America really became the world leader it is, not because of the money and wealth we’ve accumulated. Not because of the military might we displayed across the globe – but because of the social revolutionary actions of our people in the 1960’s. The attitudes and social changes of our previous generation shaped the world – it changed the western cultures of Europe and Asia. Conservative leaders, even those of the Middle East, shun the values of the American culture, particularly those of the ‘60s. The social liberation of people all over the world began in the grass-roots of America forty years ago. Aided by the expansion of instant media and the new speed of travel – the corners of the world began to close in and the changes here could be seen and felt around the globe, not over years, but in an instant.

The good ol’days, I guess.

He recommended I watch the movie “Pleasantville.” He said, most people don’t get the message of that movie, but it’s just that. Through the late ‘50s and ‘60s, America re-colored the world.

It’s always refreshing to catch someone else’s point of view.

Ah, but now I sit in silence. Five and a half hours of flying to get to my destination. I sit and consider the week ahead.

It’s bright with amazing prospects.

Seattle. A city I’ve always wanted to see.

I can’t wait.