Heathrow

Subject: Heathrow.

Watching. The scenes at Heathrow and listening to the complaints of passengers who couldn't get away to fly to some distant destination and a spot of sunshine one had to consider how their complaints went down in the areas where a plane flight is but a distant dream. The statement which one often heard, that they the passengers would have the discomfort of settling down on the floor for the night makes one wonder if they have ever considered the plight of the homeless where each night they have to settle and spend the night, not even in the relative luxury of terminal 5 but a cold wet doorway to snatch a couple of hours before being moved on by the authority's.
Our lives are so disconnected, the gulf which exists between people makes any sense of unity remote, made more so by the importance we attach these days to consumerism.
If we aren't consuming something we feel we have failed. The announcement that we are flying out to some sun drenched destination is part of the kudos we attach to the way other people see and evaluate us. The shirts, the shoes, the car is a package with our name on it for people to wonder at. Beneath the skin we are common so we have to do something overt to signal how special we see ourselves. We fail to see the wonder in just being who we are. We fail to understand the mind as a instrument of compassion and interpretation. A rich source of excitement and supposition which can take us on flights of fancy just as rewarding as those flights that failed to get away from Heathrow.
It might be argued that journeys should only be taken with consideration. The consideration of what cost they signify to global pollution not only in terms of fuel particulates but of the despoliation which we as humans bring to the places we visit.
The sheer numbers and the demands we make to find the things we left behind, the food and drink which specify where we come from rather than the produce of the place we have come to visit. We twist our destinations into a series of artificial pit stops and rather than absorb the local cuisine, we demand and through our demands spoil where ever our footprint takes us.
So I find some pleasure with the thought that some holiday makers were left stranded unable to further pollute those foreigners with our substitute for real living and suggest instead the simplicity of a corner field and tent in Pembroke