5 Day Trip. Day 5 by Rosemary Griggs

         I lived in San Sebastian, Spain for a year as an undergraduate and enjoyed getting to know another culture well enough that it began to open my mind to a different way of thinking. I have been studying French for the past year and a half with the goal of becoming a qualified French speaker on the San Francisco to Paris route so I can work that route more regularly.  Our layover there is two days.  While I plan to continue allowing all the cultures I encounter to influence my writing, I look forward to choosing one at this point to really study and embrace.

        In Paris it feels like it’s still worthwhile to pursue the fine arts.  I could walk around the gardens every day and be inspired by the dark genius of Rodin’s statues.  I love the twisted fits of brilliance jutting out of The Gates of Hell.  I visited Père Lachaise Cemetery in September.  To have the towering trees shedding their autumn leaves and hear the voices of children coming over the hill as I meandered the final resting places of some of my favorite people was enchanting.   
    
        I have of course been (re)reading French poets and novelists as I study the language and culture.  Antoine de Saint-Exupéry has become very dear to me.  He was an airline pilot.  In his memoir Wind, Sand, and Stars, he speaks of many aspects of the airline profession and this “new breed of men” that ring true to me.  The rich paradise of camaraderie alternating with isolation.  Sometimes you have a wonderful crew to go out with and sometimes you’re alone in a hotel room or a strange place or even back at home where everyone else is participating in a Monday through Friday work routine that you aren’t part of, you don’t even feel on their time zone.  When you understand that, you can understand why airline crews feel a strong familial bond with each other.  Some of the greatest treasures one encounters exploring are the people you meet.  

        “Thus is the earth at once a desert and a paradise, rich in secret hidden gardens, gardens inaccessible, but to which the craft leads us ever back, one day or another.  Life may scatter us and keep us apart; it may prevent us from thinking very often of one another; but we know that our comrades are somewhere ‘out there’-where, one can hardly say-silent, forgotten, but deeply faithful.  And when our path crosses theirs, they greet us with such manifest joy, shake us so gaily by the shoulders!  Indeed we are accustomed to waiting.” -Antoine de Saint de Saint-Exupéry      

        On occasion, Antoine would circle an airport for forty extra minutes before landing so he could finish reading a novel or working on his writing, much to the chagrin of the tower and ground staff.

        I would like to thank Best American Poetry for allowing me to be their Guest Author this week.  It has forced me to look at my career and writing, and I hope at least a few people were mildly entertained. Merci!

 

  

Comments

[DL]

Rosemary, When as a young man I spent an extended time in Paris, some friends and I took a memorable train trip to San Sebastian. Your post brought memories flooding back.
I understand what you say about flight crew solidarity and about being on a different time schedule from the rest of the working universe. The first does not apply specifically to me, but the second does, and with a vengeance.
Thank you for gracing out blog.

[Rosemary Griggs]

Of course, thank you for having me! I love when memories come flooding back...