When you grow up in a family with two parents and three kids, family outings can become a horse-race: jockeying for position so that you can get a seat by the window. The problem, you see, is that when there are five people in the car, everyone gets a seat by the window....except for one. If you don't call the position quickly enough, and get in the car soon enough, it's possible to end up in the worst available seat: being stuck in the middle of the back seat.
Now, it's not that you can't see from that position. You just can't see as well. You don't have the options to do such exciting things as hold your arm out and feel the aerodynamics of the wind move it up and down, or look over the side of the bridge at the tugboats steaming down below, or roll the window down so you can feel the exhilaration of fresh air streaming across your face. A ride in the car becomes much more mundane when you don't have a seat by the window.
But then you grow up, and you get the seat by the window, as the driver or front seat passenger. Still, it's not quite the same. As an adult, much of the wonder of childhood is gone, and the simple thrills that made getting a seat by the window so exciting no longer give you the adrenaline surge they did as a child...until you get on a plane for the first time.
It's different on a plane. The window is small, the position of it makes it hard to really see through with great clarity, yet, as the plane races to widen the distance between itself and terra firma, that window provides the visual confirmation that this is not some sleight of hand trick or glorified video game. You are leaving the earth, soaring in the air, passing through - and above- the clouds. A little bit of the wonder of childhood is recaptured as you watch through that tiny porthole and observe how the world changes right before your eyes.
Whether you're a 10 year old peering out of your family's car as you travel down the highway, or an adult gazing at the wonder of the world as you fly, those who want to see all they can see; those who want to maximize the power of that experience want a seat by the window, because that's where the action is, where life is, and they don't want to miss it.
Some may choose to sit on the aisle, some may opt for the middle. Give me a seat by the window. I don't want to miss a thing.
Dan
