Scenes from Newark Airport:

-The Virgin Atlantic staff, long red ladies in uniform sitting on the floor facing the windows, watching the planes and texting on their cell phones.

-Malaysian Air crew in purple-blue floral print, quieting arriving en masse to board the plane.

-Swedes and Malaysians on a flight to Stockholm, East and West in tight proximity.

When I take off on a international flight, my world gets a lot bigger. The map in front of me zooms out and I marvel at how far away the places seem at 40,000 feet. Suddenly it is all very large, complicated, unknown, and exciting.

The crew approaches with a special meal, playing marco polo in the back of the plane. When they find its recipient, the ultra-Orthodox Jew accepts and explains Kashrut to the Malay Muslim stewardess. Israel comes up, as does racism in Malaysia. I wait for the sparks, which never occur. I jealously observe a wonderful point of rare cultural contact and diplomatic decoding of the other. Suddenly, the world is smaller, manageable, and concrete again. Split hooves, chewing cud, and we’re off to Europe. I take Tylenol PM and wait for the meal to arrive.