"I fly 747s for a living. Here are the amazing things I see every day."

vox.com

53 points·grendelt··5 comments

Then, less than an hour after the long-stilled wheels of the 747 were spun back to life by the sun-beaten surface of an African runway, I'll be on a bus heading into Cape Town, sitting in rush hour traffic, on an ordinary morning in which, glancing down through the windshield of a nearby car, I'll see a hand lift a cup of coffee or reach forward to tune the radio. And I'll think: All this would still be going on if I hadn't flown here.

I finally made an account to comment on this. This is one of those realizations which, to me, still has its full effect every time I think about it. I think it really hit me the first time when I was on a road trip, passing city after city, neighborhood after neighborhood, house after house, and then thinking about the population of the area I just passed compared to that of my state, my country, and outward. Thinking about the challenges and experiences I've had among my friends and family, inside each of those houses, etc. It's a very powerful source of empathy.

I believe this is called "sonder".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkoML0_FiV4

"We keep passing unseen through little moments of other people's lives." - Robert M. Pirsig

He seems to maintain a sense of wonder that I find surprising for a pilot. For me, I think the daily routine would become droll and familiar after working it for a year or so. And I can't imagine how hard it would be to sit in a cockpit doing nothing for 12 hours while the plane flies in a straight line over the ocean, and then do it again the next day, and the next. It seems so boring.

If you do what you love for a living, you'll never have to work again. Of course what one person loves another can find boring :-)

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