Deconstructing Fear

I've been doing a lot of traveling lately - hence the erratic blog-posting schedule. This experience has allowed me to re-discover my general loathing of air travel. Now this is an old and worn-out topic, so let my try to take a slightly different approach.

Some things surrounding air travel are annoying - e.g. the strange flight-times, the humiliating security checks, the waiting game, delays, cancellations, etc. A smaller set of air travel characteristics is frightening - e.g. the takeoff, turbulence, seeing the world from 30,000 feet, and the landing. I don't mind the annoying parts - that's the cost of productive live meetings. It's the frightening stuff that makes me question the need to fly.

Although the fear-induced stress is ever-present throughout a flight, it particularly peaks during takeoff and during the landing. Clearly, the landing is the last hurdle prior to both physical and emotional relaxation. So the landing is the light at the end of the tunnel. It is the culmination of a somewhat risky relocation process. It is where the real work begins.