The smooth subversion of air travel

Alain de Botton, in A Week At The Airport: A Heathrow Diary, after discussing the brutality of airport car parks and their unforgiving fluorescent lights,

We may ask of our destinations, ‘Help me to feel more generous, less afraid, always curious. Put a gap between me and my confusion; the whole of the Atlantic between me and my shame.’ Travel agents would be wiser to ask us what we hope to change about our lives rather than simply where we wish to go.

Also, on the impact of air travel on the meaning of journeys:

Whatever the benefits of prolific and convenient air travel, we may curse it for its smooth subversion of our attempts to use journeys to make lasting changes in our lives.