Keeping Up With the Time

Dearest Rachel –

It’s not like we haven’t flown long distances from east to west in recent memory; it’s not even been half a year since we returned from the Holy Land via Istanbul – a flight taking about the same ten or eleven hours as that from San Francisco to Tokyo.  So the fact that our plane moves almost as fast across the earth as the time zones it crosses – keeping up with the time, as it were – should come as no surprise.  But that trip was through the daytime hours, and thus simply felt like a very long day.  Here, we boarded the flight at two in the moment, and landed a bit after five, making this trip one through what seemed like an impossibly long night.

There’s only so much sleep you can get in, even on a flight like this, spent in eleven hours of Stygian darkness.  If nothing else, that much time spent with your whole weight on your fourth point of contact makes that particular point ridiculously sore, regardless of the amount of width and legroom – which, to the airline’s credit, our seats had plenty of.  I’m actually starting to wonder how much of this trip’s expense went to getting better than economy-class seating.

Not that it made the trip more comfortable.

So what’s to be desired be, when you’re just too uncomfortable to actually fall asleep?  Well, there’s always prayer.  There’s a lot to think about in the quiet (well, apart from the engine and the air vent, which are basically white noise, and not really distracting) and the dark, and who better to talk with about them than God Himself?  And if the tempter should try to turn me away from this conversation by causing me to fall asleep, well, that’s a problem solved before I have to deal with jet lag once we land.  It’s a win-win situation.

But what is there to talk about?  Not so much about travel safety, oddly enough; you’d think that would be on my mind, but given what I know about air travel, it doesn’t really come to mind, even in the occasional pocket of turbulence.  Maybe it’s misplaced to center it on the flight crew, but I have faith in them.  And unlike some religious folks, I see no need to pray to or for you; you are where you are, and no word from me will change things (nor would either you or I want to).  I do find myself offering thanks for Lars’ efforts at getting Daniel approved for boarding, and hopes that, despite (like me) being less than enthused when I delivered the news that the trip was still on, he’ll enjoy himself, and learn a bit from each port we visit – I certainly hope to.

But mostly, I find myself praying for Megumi.  No, it’s not as though I expect to meet her on this trip (although who knows?  I might very well meet someone, or several someones, who actually answer to that name.  It’s a reasonably common name over here, I understand).  Indeed, one of the girls has insisted that Megumi might already be known to me; and while I disagree with her optimism, I find myself appreciative of it all the same.  in any event, she (or those who might be her) is often hovering in the back of my mind.  If I can’t have you back – and I’ve certainly resigned myself to that – I have to ask God to bring her to my attention, and vice versa.  I really hope He can do so while we’re still able to enjoy each other; otherwise, what would be the point?

It’s not exactly sleep-inducing material; dreams, maybe, but really, more like daydreams, and this is not the time for that.  Now should be the time for actual sleep, because once we land, the day is only beginning… and we need to be ready for it.

With that in mind, keep an eye on us, honey. Oh, and wish us luck; we’re going to need it.