Travel Trauma

When fuel prices were high last year, I saw people actually curtailing their travel and plotting how to get more things done any time they pulled their vehicle out of their driveways. It was a good thing to see people making a conscious attempt to change their behavior regardless if it was to save money or save the earth.

My wife recently returned from a trip with her sister. She’s been back for a couple weeks now and she is now just starting to speak of a new sort of trauma that she calls Travelers Guilt. I knew immediately what she meant. Aside from constant cultural invasion to lands of which we have no business being in; there is all the expended fuel to take people from one place to another.

I don’t know how much fuel it takes to fly across the country, but considering you can take the amount of fuel and divide by the passengers, each passenger has a related fuel usage. Considering how many times I have flown across the country and across the Pacific I am probably responsible for one entire flight and the fuel it has burned. I have little to show for it. Sure maybe some photographs and memories, but in reality I should have stayed home and donated the money I spent to a worthy cause.