Wooden Ships

Our lives have become so filled with machines it seems we often don't notice their presence.  We don't think about how we use them, or how they affect us.

As an example take the modern international airport.  We don't often think about it in this way, but it is a machine.  And like all machines it was designed to function in a certain way, to achieve a given end.

 

Most of all the machine is designed to move people.  From the moment you arrive at the airport until you board your plane this machine guides you. 

 

Wide open spaces that allow you to see your destination keep the flow moving more smoothly.  Other areas of the machine require narrow aisles to better control the flow from one part of the machine to the next. Lanes may be defined by pretty velvet ropes on brass poles to define a narrow queue moving towards a reward of food, or officious black ribbons to lead us to the hassles of the security gate.

 

In retail areas the lanes have more turns to them, and are less open, encouraging us to linger a bit. Perhaps to lead us to wander into this store or that for a last minute purchase.  Lighting, background music, even the odors in the air are carefully thought out to separate us from our money.  Dollars, Pesos, Yen, or Rubles. 

 

The food court has lanes that move us efficiently past the serving windows, then into a glen of tables and chairs.  Even the mix of tables, booths, and counter tops is carefully designed. Designed to feed us, then move us along as efficiently as possible.

 

And there's always a McDonalds and a Starbucks.  Always.  I'm just saying.

 

But the most interesting thing about the machine is still the users passing through it's systems.  Each passenger carrying their luggage, literally and metaphorically, through the halls and up the escalators. Carrying their clothes, their laptops and tooth brushes. And their dreams. 

 

Some people may view the modern airport as somehow dehumanizing.  Using the machine, a mere tool, is mistaken for being a part of the machine.  But this machine is designed to take a difficult, trying experience and make it easier. Even, dare I say it, more relaxing?

 

Above all else, nothing can dehumanize you without your consent. The best way to retain your humanity while in the belly of the machine? Crosby, Still, Nash and Young said it best in the song Wooden Ships:

 

"If you smile at me, I will understand. That is something everyone everywhere does in the same language."

 

Even in airports.  Keep smiling.