life has a hopeful undertone

Tove Jansson "Tatuś Muminka i morze"

In my old New York City life, the one that no longer exists, I used to watch planes fly one by one, in a stoic parade on their way to JFK Airport. I’d wonder about the people inside: some going home, some landing in a foreign place, some who would soon be sitting at a deathbed, some about to get too drunk a wedding, some who’d sleep alone in a hotel on a lonely business trip. I miss doing that. Now, when I see the occasional plane (I counted only three yesterday), my shoulders tighten. Nobody on that plane gracefully soaring over Queens is nervously going over their slide deck for a meeting in the financial district. No one is going to do the electric slide with their distant cousin at a wedding; nobody is going to their first Broadway show; nobody is going to meet their long-term crush at the top of the Empire State Building.

Mariusz Szczygieł, “Zrób sobie raj”