Politically Incorrect Smells and a Promise
I love the smell of kerosene on Amsterdam Schiphol International Airport. The one in Newark, New York has a good smell too. Bristol International does not have the perfect kerosene smell, but it comes close. Well, if that is not politically incorrect, I don’t know what is.
People, I just can’t help it. The smell reminds me of adventures and family and friends’ visits, the ones I count as the best experiences I’ve had in my life. It does mean that I fly the world over for work and to visiting my loved ones, but I do recycle, compost, buy local produce and products and I do love my chickens.
Here’s another one. I like the smell of tarmac and of freshly laid tar paper on a sheds’ roof and when that tarry whiff is accompanied with the soft cooing of a turtle dove on a warm summers’ afternoon, my happiness is boundless.
The long walk on the hot, nearly melting tarmac of Paramaribo Airport, Suriname on the northern coastline of South America is one I will not forget lightly. I almost kissed the simmering surface. We (two sisters and I) were just released from a massive Boeing after a ten-hour flight, together with at least two school classes of noisy and fidgety spotty adolescents. They bumped into my seat for the duration of the flight and after friendly and later not so friendly remarks and requests I succumbed to their inability to comprehend that they were not the best that could ever happen to this world at this moment in time. Their school must have been on an exchange program with a Suriname school; their uniformly worn t-shirts shouted the slogan “Living Together! We Know How!”
The photo I took of myself and my two sisters, holding the camera on arm-length distance, shows a certain very politically incorrect hand gesture, just above our heads; a teenagers’ way of taking revenge on three middle-aged slightly overweight women. This was the politically incorrect way my mother described us three younger siblings when my sister in Suriname pondered if she would recognise us after having not seen us for a long time.
Today’s smell of a moped driving by takes me back to my first boyfriend. Protective headgear was not mandatory yet and my parents were concerned about my safety in many ways. They were standing at the gate, wringing their hands, watching their youngest daughter being snapped away by a 16-year-old boy with the nickname Fox. Adventure and possibly a kiss or two were expected from my side, accompanied with that delightful smell of gasoline. And sometimes, when I stop at the petrol/diesel pump filling up my car, smelling those car smells, a distinct sense of freedom takes a hold of me.
I have flown, been driven and drive for my work and for visiting family and friends. I have to live with the notion that I – very politically/environmentally incorrect – have to use a plane and a car and possibly a boat or two for the foreseeable future, if I want to get to the ones I call my nearest and dearest. I do walk as much as possible and use public transport when present, wherever I land. I still have to work on learning to love the smells of train stations and bus terminals. I’m getting there.
Mother Earth, can you hear me above the monotonous drone of our traffic? I want to thank you for your gifts of metal, fuel and other materials that make it possible for me to travel, being loved and to love in return. I promise you I will conscientiously use these gifts. That’s the best I can do. For now.
- Karin Schluter Lonegren
Tags: Amsterdam Schiphol, Newark, psychic bodywork, psychic readings, SunnyBank Centre, Suriname
January 27th, 2010 at 8:13 am
Nice one mom!
January 27th, 2010 at 8:27 am
January 27th, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Great post.
It is always a debate within me as to whether I do enough. I feel on one hand that I console myself too frequently about how I do A,B& C and thus doing a little of X,Y &Z is ok. We must live a little, but I also feel the bell is tolling on our dear planet and the time has come where those of us that are aware may have to take extra (said with a sigh) steps to do more. Maybe this is a penance we have to pay for others who do little to nothing? Maybe this is just the righteous way for those of us who truly respect our amazing Mother Earth? Sometimes I look at “tit for tat conservation” through the lens of diet fallacies- “well since I exercised today, I can now have a piece of cake.” Well not really, if my goal remains to lose weight- then no cake just because I exercised- something I should be doing daily. All to often that “tit for tat” thought has led to no progress.
So what do we do if we know we are doing harm with our daily actions? I am beginning to play with the thought of clear communication- to others and to myself. Maybe it is better to call a spade a spade than to couch it in nonaligned good deeds (think back to the diet lens and we see that the reward should be feeling better at accomplishing the exersize that brings me closer to my goal)? At least then, I am conscious of the role I play and maybe with my honesty I honor my commitment to continually aim to do better. Or I recognize that in this one realm I am not really aiming to do better. Somehow this makes me feel as if I am acting and living in the present rather than believing I can off-set my current actions with previous or later actions.
I like your use of the sense of smell to remind us all to use our senses and acknowledge how grateful we are to our Mother. The time to come back to our senses has certainly come! The truth lies somewhere within all of us. May we listen to our inner compass.
Thank you for this post!
January 27th, 2010 at 6:29 pm
Love your post!!
It’s amazing that I’ve finally heard from someone who also likes the smell of gasoline!! When I was a little girl walking home from school I’d have to pass a gas station which had open bays and mechanics working on cars. I would stop for a moment to drink in that wonderful aroma!!! Strong gasoline smell from a jerrycan or from oilpaint brushes soaking in gasoline I find intolerable.
Ineke
January 27th, 2010 at 7:09 pm
Great to hear that you love that too! Standing in a garage where a car has been in for a while is also lovely. I agree with you that “turps” and jerrycans smells are despicable.
January 27th, 2010 at 7:12 pm
it is always good to communicate clearly! I do my best and that is all I can do at the moment for the environment. There may be a time that I will, or have to make, the choice not to fly anymore…Do I really help the environment by paying exrtra for trees to be planted somewhere on this planet? I think England needs more trees too. Love you!
January 27th, 2010 at 7:12 pm
Yep, that’s the way it goes!
January 27th, 2010 at 7:13 pm
Glad you like it! Beh!
February 8th, 2010 at 4:54 pm
Had to laugh because remember, as a girl in America, my cousin and I loved the smell of gasoline and always volunteered to fill up fuel tanks. This all stopped the day they found her passed out over the lawn mower. Still remember the smell fondly, but stay away. LOL
Also an opportunity to tell you how much this displaced, politically-incorrect, American enjoys your newsletters.
Beth
February 8th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
Yes, that is funny! Thank you for liking my newsletters, it’s good to hear that.
Karin