volander: n. the ethereal feeling of looking down at the world through an airplane window, able to catch a glimpse of far-flung places you’d never see in person, free to let your mind wander, trying to imagine what they must feel like down on the ground – the closest you’ll ever get to an objective point of view.

I snap these types of photos all the time. This was me leaving Denver for Fort Lauderdale recently:

Here was last year above Hawaii:

and leaving Melbourne:

As I fly, I sometimes think about the world below me, what it’s like from the ground, what it’s like for people who’ve walked there. Sometimes I plan to go someday and see.

Often, I know I’ll never get there.

I flew to Las Vegas a few weeks ago, and there are lots of places I could visit that I see, and some I have. However, much of the mountains above Colorado, the desert outside Las Vegas to the East, these are places I’ll never go.

But I can dream.

From the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows