If you’re a modern globe trotter and travel for hours on buses, trains and planes then I'd like feedback. Are current travel ethics they different than those respected by previous generations? Is it OK to furtively watch someone send quotidian texts from one seat back? When does passing gas in a loud, crowded semi-public venue cross from don’t-ask-don’t-tell to war crime? If you're in a foreign country with novel scents, you probably won’t mind self-initiated farts but the locals may be able to identify alien toots so don't push your luck.
Is it permissible to watch extended sex scenes from a movie the airline includes in your fare on your back of the chair not-so-private screen? There must be boundaries of decency, no?
Best to just stay away from the corporate approved entertainment. When it comes down to it, it’s all smut. I watch it not because I want to admit that I love it rather in an attempt to distract my mind from the nightmarish last minutes imagined in a plane crash. Historically speaking, I know that turbulence should be casually ignored. It does not require you to squeeze your sleeping partner's hand and contemplate how to share a final moment together. Death's maw stays at bay with my deep dependance on an army of airline industry strangers and bits of not unlucky luck.
Coping exercises engaged. Right now is all that actually exists. One way or another, this moment and these thoughts pass. I've heard believers say you'll call to god when everything goes to shit and I think, well, maybe. As I write this, I’ve never died nor failed to escape the drug den of depression. If I start believing, like really believing in something supernatural, I guess that'll be proof of my one-way trip coming to an end. Consciousness on a finite countdown. If I am thoughtful enough to recognize this shift, is it wrong to make my last tick of time the most savored?