Over the North Pole by aeroplane

I'm on the ground in China! Next I take the mag-lev train to town,
which costs about $10 and cruises a few millimeters above its track at
270 mph.

Being too accustomed to Mercator projections, I was surprised to
discover that the flight path from Chicago to Shanghai is due north,
as long as there's more north to go to.

This image is pretty fuzzy, but the map shows our plane inching into
Santa territory, which it turns out is big and flat and white. Hard
not to ponder what it would mean to land down there, especially with
the ice being so anemic these days. Worse than finding yourself on
Hoth sans taun taun.

The plane is full of students from all over the country, getting ready
to start study abroad experiences with the new semester. Encountering
them has reminded me how powerfully in college I was drawn to the idea
of studying internationally, but never managed to piece it together:
figuring out where and how, covering the costs and, most importantly,
really committing to do it, taking the leap. I spent hours perusing
program brochures in the campus international study office, and
daydreaming about it. I didn't talk about it with anyone, though.

It's strange how problems that at one time seemed intractable can
later lose their mysteriousness, even become cliche (which is not to
say easy or trivial) with perspective and distance. I'd like to think
that if I'd explored my co-occurring curiosity and uncertainty about
doing a semester abroad more fully back then, it would have been clear
that the most important decision was whether to want it. (Some say
ethics is deciding what you want to want...)

I also see many ways this same sitch plays in my life today: getting
mired in uncertainty, ambivalence or inertia, often aided by or
disguised as analysis. I wonder what would happen if Eric-today could
sit down with Eric-then to talk this whole study abroad option
through. What would Eric-then think? Would he find himself on a flight
like this? Would he listen to an older (possibly wiser) version of
himself that these big challenges can be sometimes be resolved just by
committing to a decision, however uncertain it might remain? Or --
since we're digging in here, why not go all the way -- would this
solipsistic fantasy conversation cause the universe to explode?