It has been ten years since I started flying to various locations
around North America every week as part of the job description. Many
friends and relatives ask me repeatedly "why do you do it?" or "how
can you stand travelling so much?". The simple answer is LOVE.
Love? Well, certainly not love of travel and definitely not the thrill
of seeing new places... The actual act of going to airports several
times a week and being repeatedly violated by TSA is repulsive at
best, and deadly due to exposure to every virus and bacterium known to
man, at it's almost worst.
So, what is the love I refer to that empowers me to lose valuable
possesions on a regular basis and suffer the indignitities of modern
post 911 travel? What would compel a guy to leave a job at a
dealership in sunny Phoenix so he can fly to Detroit and Chicago every
week in January and February? ...The love of a woman.
Let me explain... When I met my wife Elizabeth (Dr. E), she was still
working on her Ph.d at Penn State in Happy Valley, PA. When I asked
her to marry me, I did so knowing that my previous two voyages in
matrimony had ended in divorce. So, one of the commitments I made to
Dr. E in closing the proposal, was that I would not accept any job
that would require us to move away from the location if her best
academic Career opportunity.
So I have repeatedly turned down opportunities to occupy an office at
a fixed location in order to have a steady string of career roles
where my most frequent office location is seat 11C on board a
Southwest Airlines flight to Detroit (as I write this), Chicago, Los
Angeles, Providence, Houston, Orange County, San Diego, San Francisco,
Las Vegas, Kansas City, Baltimore, Minneapolis, Dallas, Ft.
Lauderdale, Denver, Albuquerque, Phoenix and all points in between.
There is a certain irony to know that I fly LUV for love... But at
times like right now, when I left my Ralph Lauren sportcoat on the
back of a chair in a BWI crab cake restaurant while waiting to board a
thunderstorm delayed flight, well... LUV for love makes another day of
travel annoyances and lost belongings just a little easier to accept.
People think I travel for work because it is the job I choose, now for
my friends who read this blog, you know that this road warrior travels
to keep his feet from taking root, and to keep that promise I made to
the love of my life. And, the next time you hear the story about why
Southwest chose the stock symbol LUV for their airline, maybe you'll
remember the story of the road warrior who flies LUV for Love, and to
keep a promise made to the professor he fell in love with so long ago.
[Sent from Ralph Paglia's iPhone]
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