{"id":9110,"date":"2025-09-28T14:39:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T14:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/?p=9110"},"modified":"2025-10-02T21:21:58","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T21:21:58","slug":"flight-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/?p=9110","title":{"rendered":"flight back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The flight back from Sweden was the worst I\u2019ve ever taken. I Usually book an aisle. I forgot.  Wedged for eight hours between two large men. By the time I boarded, all the overhead space was gone, which meant my overstuffed carry-on ended up at my feet, stealing what little legroom remained. Torture. And yet, only two nights earlier, in my hotel room watching a documentary about a man from North Korea, years of imprisonment, near-deaths he somehow survived. How can I complain? But there I was, unravelling, convinced I couldn\u2019t bear it. I <em>needed<\/em> the room I didn\u2019t have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don\u2019t get panic attacks, but my mind kept checking the temperature of the water wondering if I could jump into it. Imagining what it might be like to let the frustration spill out in a public storm. Some irrational part of me wanted the relief of a breakdown, puncture the claustrophobic nightmare. But I sat still, cramped and silent, realizing again what I always forget: I can\u2019t control these things. I didn\u2019t control the seat assignment, or the overhead space, or the bodies pressed against me. I don\u2019t control much of anything. Life keeps arranging itself in ways I wouldn\u2019t choose, and my part is only to endure and witness  mind flailing against facts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The flight back from Sweden was the worst I\u2019ve ever taken. I Usually book an aisle. I forgot. Wedged for eight hours between two large men. By the time I <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/?p=9110\" class=\"more-link\">[&hellip;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"Layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","author-rockbob","post-9110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-touring"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}