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Sunday, February 08, 2004
Estremera: They're more than bows and flows
By Stella A. Estremera
Spider's Web
Clouds are not "ice cream castles in the air" as the song goes; more like the ice cream makers really, yourself being the cream. In fact those "bows and flows" are the most frightening of all.
I USED to hate traveling by plane, it's simply too confining and yes, boring as you only have the back of the seat in front of you to look at, your snoring seatmate, and the occasional sight of a person walking on the aisle. That was until I discovered clouds.
Thus, if in one of your trips on a plane (in one of those walks along the aisle to the restroom) you notice someone other than a child with her cheeks and nose almost flat on the plane window staring outside, chances are, that's me.
There's something surrealistic about watching clouds when they're right in front of you, or better yet, below you. Awesome and beautiful don't seem enough to describe them.
However, having experienced how it is to get caught in cloud formations in a small plane, I also know they are nothing near fluffy. Clouds are not "ice cream castles in the air" as the song goes; more like the ice cream makers really, yourself being the cream. In fact those "bows and flows" are the most frightening of all (go ask Jojie A. over at our Chill-out section in the regular paper, she was with me in that plane ride). Bumpy A300 rides are nothing compared to being caught in a huge cloud mass while riding a small plane. It's like you were on a circus ride except that nothing is anchoring you to the ground, not even the rails and seatbelts of the rollercoaster. Having been through that circus ride in a plane, I also look at clouds with respect. They're a power by themselves that I will never scoff at nor ever dare to liken to ice creams.
The other week, I was in a plane once more, and it was among the best rides so far. The clouds were not in their usual shapes of "bows and flows". They were like a fleet of white Starships Enterprise. They were huge, they looked awesome, and they just zipped upward in bold unmoving streaks and wide expanse of seemingly solid masses below, making them look just a little bit threatening. But they were white. Not the dark clouds that would make you think of thunderclaps and lightning, just awesome white mass that don't even look a teeny-weeny bit fluffy. It was a cloud-watcher's delight, a whole expanse of sky as canvas for one's imagination to run free in. I was in cloud heaven and was just waiting for a glimpse of angels with their haloes askew popping out of those curlicued "ground" of clouds for a comic relief.
The final treat came as we passed through the Cagayan de Oro skies. There was a rainbow amid a break in the mass of clouds and it was like just right outside my window.
I could no longer hold myself back and gave a squeak of delight, and tapped my seatmate, a very young woman who was coming home for a break after six months of dancing in Japan.
"Look," I said, "a rainbow!"
She looked out in acknowledgement of my excitement, and then did nothing else, except recline back on her seat after giving me what looked like a doting smile. It was like, she was unimpressed. Oh...
"Pauwi ka rin ng Davao?" she asked, re-opening a conversation we were having before the clouds transfixed me.
"Yup," I said, nodding in reply.
"Kelan ka pa pala umalis ng Davao?" she asked again.
"Kahapon ng hapon," I replied. Her nonplussed look upon hearing my answer,
however, forced me to add, "Meron lang trabaho."
Somehow I felt her braincells whirring, trying to put together my seeming excitement over the rainbow (that can quickly be equated to being "ignorante" by the less appreciative) and the quick trip to Manila and back (otherwise called jetsetting by the snobs), and simply couldn't put two and two together. I grabbed that lull in the conversation to return to my free show.
Having the window all to myself this time, I stuck my face right flat on the hard plastic pane, watching the rainbow until it disappeared amid more masses of clouds, and grinned. "You don't respect my clouds? Then I'll have them all to myself!"
Then we entered the clouds as we started to descend; that's when I leaned back on my seat. I don't like it inside clouds because that's when you see how fast the airplane really is and I'm no speed freak.
Still in awe from that over one hour of clouds display, there was still this niggling pity for the young girl who didn't quite seem to appreciate what only nature can ever create -- a splash of rainbow in a cloud suite. And you get to see it for free if you happen to be flying at that time.
But then, I thought, it's not just these free shows that are ignored these days. Nature just isn't as awesome anymore to a lot whose minds are so fixed on those that can be acquired.
(E-mail: ikik@myway.com)
(February 8, 2004 issue)
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