Flying Standby

Well, what can I say. Some of us just never learn a lesson. I still think that i can pull pans directly out of the oven with my bare hands. I try to drink starbucks coffee the minute they hand me the cup, and I keep trying to fly on buddy passes because it is cheap and i can do it last minute.

And I get burned every time.

I am glad that I caught the shuttle that i did this morning, even if it means i am sitting around in a building full of strange people. I got a chance to talk with someone who is going to change the world some day.

Louise Ross is a film student from Edinburgh, Scotland. She has been to more countries than I can count on all my fingers and toes and has grey-blue eyes that shine like gems when she talks about her mission in life. Maybe it’s just the morning sun coming over the mountains, but they literally glimmer with promise.

Her Mission? To save the world.

She describes to me the sharks off the Indian Ocean side of South Africa, where she has just come from to participate in Sundance. She took a helicopter over the beaches there and speaks of how the surfers sit within feet of the huge dark shapes swishing through the waters. The surfers and Great White sharks waiting in anticipation of a wave or a snack.

She describes the sharks, not the surfers, in detail. The way they move through the water, the temperature of the water, the depths that these monstrosities call home: she relays it all as if she were submerged in the water with them. I quickly learn that she was indeed.

Lowered into the water in a steel cage, Louise swam with sharks. Circling the cage, limpid eyes flashing the invitation to leave the confines of her cage and swim with them, they showed her the importance and mystery of life in the ocean. She hasn’t forgotten.

Louise leans forward in her seat slightly, as if imparting knowledge of hidden treasure; and in a way… she is. These are the things that we will never see in our daily routine. The things that we here in the U.S. watch films about on occasion with the tired couch potato resolve that sets in after reality TV shows have ceased airing for the day. These are the treasures the Earth hides from us; makes us search for.

Louise is the promise. Seek and ye shall find.

In Africa, animals raised on protected lands have become acclimated to the trucks of the Rangers that keep the animals safe. Having been born to parents who were also made to deal with the human presence, they react to the trucks as they would a tree. They are aware of it’s presence, but the truck with its rumbling engine and bright lights is simply a non-entity.

I’m certain she is unaware of how she curls her fingers as she describes a leopard, displaying the short and manicured claws at the end of her digits as though she were doing more than reliving a memory. She recounts a night she spent riding in a Ranger’s Jeep following a leopard as it stalked and killed an impala. I’m a little surprised that a girl this pretty would be so excited about an eviscerated animal.

To her, though, it isn’t a killing. It is nature at work. It is the world continuing on as it was intended to do.

Intently, Louise attempts to describe an elephant to me. She tries to convey the feeling of looking at this creature as it simply stands and eats grass and the feeling of awe that washes over an individual when they are faced with the sheer enormity of creation. It almost works.

It isn’t until she tell me of how an enraged rhino can tip over a jeep full of people, that I really begin to understand. I can envision the rhino puncturing the ceiling, walls, the floor of the car, nearly skewering the people inside… Me.

Louise speaks at such length is provided us by the remainder of the shuttle ride of how her travels and experiences have affected her. She is one of the few people who I have met who is truly concerned about the Earth and her connection to it. Not that She feels she is some great piece of the everlasting puzzle, but that she is very small yet interconnected. Her fervor is invigorating.

When we arrive at the airport, Louise has to get out at the first shuttle stop, while I proceed on to the next one. I quickly grab the second to last card that I have left after this week and hand it to her. As the shuttle stops she scribbles down her email, explaining that the “r” in her email is actually a lower case “k”. Super Heroes don’t have time for penmanship.

As I jump out to let her out of the shuttle van, I almost give her a hug simply because it feels right. At the last second, I think better of it and extend a hand in an awkward fashion of a person unsure of reciprocated friendship. The pause in her movement means she expected an embrace as well, but she takes it in stride and her eyes flash again as she assures me of the pleasure of my company and her desire to see me in Scotland.

The mornings ride was a warm up for a long day at the airport. Within the next 5 minutes i learned my flight was canceled, leaving myself and all those people unlucky enough to be scheduled with me, to fight for seats on the following planes. I quickly get switched to the next flight, check my baggage, and learn that the next flight is oversold by over 60 people.

I’ve got a long day ahead of me.

Luckily Nasreen, a volunteer from Brooklyn, is catching a shuttle and heading this way within the hour, meaning my day just got alot more enjoyable. Hooray for our side!