On the road again
Time flies. My last season took me to Australia, France, the UK, Germany, and my own United States. I met incredible new friends and made new bonds with terrific colleagues. A career in the classical arts certainly has it’s merits of travel and moving around. And transiting to multiple places constantly starts to build in a sense of rapidity in time, for all singers; while we have hard work at our finger tips in the moment, there is always a new point with where we must travel next that is at the top of our minds. As time has blown past me personally this year, it’s important for me to hold in my arms literally or figuratively, the people who are so dear to me, namely my parents, family, and closest friends. Without them, I am nothing. Time may blow by but people are constant.
Traveling has some real downsides. If any of you enjoy the airport, I applaud you. I remember as a kid, the joy of getting a chance to fly from my family’s home in Minneapolis to Newark, New Jersey to see the rest of my family for summer. Those good old Northwest DC9’s were fun (for kids). We were served breakfast, the seats seemed big, and we were able to greet the pilot. As a young kid, Newark Terminal B was the awesomest because there was a huge window looking at the tarmac to see many of the big wide bodies from Europe or Delta’s MD80’s, 757’s, or L1011’s. As I became older, the luster of the airport, passenger and plane watching, and the fun hustle was no longer fun. Those breakfasts and big seats, were no longer free; the seats didn’t really change, I just grew up; and the pilots are locked in to the cockpit, justifiably. Packed security lines, angry and tired passengers abounding, awful meals for a zillion dollars in economy class or boiling hot plates of food that literally sheer off the top of my mouth, if I get lucky and sit up front, and ever exploding prices on airfare which include grotesque, large fees, are now the norm. How about sitting next to a passenger who opens lovely boxes of garlic pickles and tuna salad to enjoy five minutes after the airplane door shutters or children who scream so loudly that one’s ear drum could blow up into dust and ash. Only JetBlue and Cathay Pacific have really given me some great experiences in the sky with flight staff that were even mannered across the board and made all passengers feel comfortable and happy. I’ve come to accept that this is what travel is today; that when there is a nice flight, it’s a super bonus. So, when I face that daunting security line, particularly in Philadelphia, I breathe, I go to my happy place, I think of my dog Buster, and I know that very likely, the plane will still be there in an hour for me to board to enjoy another person with their tuna sandwich. In my lifetime, I hope to be apart of helping shift the way airlines and airports transport passengers. The way by which we get from point A to B can have its affects at the margins. My, oh my, has traveling changed and it’s time all of us start speaking louder about how to change it.
Traveling has it’s upsides. This year, I’ll be in many European countries and my beloved San Francisco. Enjoying the culture of each diverse city to where I’ll travel, eating great cuisine, meeting new people, seeing some great museums…those are all fabulous attributes of getting a chance to be employed person on the road. I rarely have the opportunity to be a tourist and have fun in the places to where I travel but when I do, I grab it and enjoy every moment, as if I might not have another. I’ll be in Zurich for my first time this year; I’ll get to go back to Madrid and hopefully get to the Prado again. Note that when it’s good, it doesn’t need explaining. Traveling is a blessing for those that get the opportunity to do it and I’m fortunate to be able to get out there and experience many places in the world.
