I’ll never know you, creepy passenger in seat 2A, but someday, an artificial intelligence algorithm will identify you and tell your descendants that it found an old photo of you, and they’ll see you peering our way to see what we were photographing which was nothing more than us on a plane out of Eugene, Oregon.

Last night as I was checking in for our flight, we were offered an upgrade out of peasant class, where the likes of us belong, to sit among royalty for only $92 a person extra. We couldn’t turn down this bargain as our checked bag was now included, we were among the first dozen to board the plane, and we’d certainly have overhead bin space. While waiting for the cattle to load, we were offered coffee fitting our new status with promises of more luxuries to come as soon as the curtain was closed between us and “them.” Once in the air, our three-course white-glove breakfast service was brought out with silver dining utensils. When this part of the formalities was finished, there was nothing left to do but for Caroline to kick back and enjoy her mid-air pedicure.

Eleven days ago, flying over California on our way to Oregon, shamefully, as just two more cows in peasant class, I cracked open Bruno Latour’s After Lockdown. I was certain I’d finish it while out on the coast, but it turned out that I never found a moment to read even one more sentence. As we were taxiing this morning, I was struggling to write legibly, but as soon as I put a period to this paragraph, I’ll be turning back to the book to see where he takes his ideas on metamorphosis.

Providing size comparison that the earth is merely 0.14% the weight compared to the weight of energy the sun emits, Latour posits that, in effect, we live in a thin biolayer of existence much like a termite, though we’ve tricked ourselves into believing we have the autonomy to go where we want. Lockdown thus turned us into the termite and changed our perception of who and what we are.

If women and earth are feminine and men and the universe are masculine regarding our species’ evolution so far, when will we recognize the need for more humans to be caregivers and nurturers? This need to have men accept roles that have traditionally been female roles will change the way men see themselves. Maybe we are already seeing this change.

That’s Lake Pleasant out there, which is at the edge of Phoenix, meaning we are almost home. Time to close that chapter from Latour and put the Oregon coast behind us before settling into a long slog of trying to document another incredible vacation.