Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

It's finally starting to settle, the ash and the dust. The European skies are gradually starting  to open up again to the much missed giant metal birds. Their assumed might, so easily undermined by something as unassuming as ash. After a six day long flight ban that brought all air travel, sans exceptions, to a grinding halt, airlines can only barely begin to clear the backlog.
I myself transitioned into a single working parent indefinitely, not sure when the other parent would finally make it back home from the other end of the world, by whatever uncertain means. Through all the chaos and disruption and immense frustration of hundreds of thousands of passengers, I couldn't help but smile. Not out of schadenfreude. I am, I admit, amused at the matchless power of nature and our utter helplessness towards it.

Earthquakes and Tsunami's and yes, even Volcanic eruptions itself are forces that can wipe out huge areas almost instantaneously, causing equally huge losses. Them, one reckons with. Ash on the other hand, seems rather harmless, don't you think? Airlines are looking at losses of up to $2 Billion for a six day ban. How did we get here? When did it become normal to actually commute to work by air? Commute by air I say, the chronic idiocy of it!! How many of us live so far away from our workplace that we would need a plane to get to work and back. Or travel across the globe for one meeting, rather than pick up the phone? Or holiday in exotic locations thousands of miles away, before discovering our own territories? Why people??

I'm at a loss for answers. Have a good flight my friends!