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12 August 2018. 3pm.
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30,000 ft above New South Wales.
Fig. 22.1
Aeroplane view (top) and pilgrim’s view (bottom)
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In the middle of the upper photo, marked with a square, is the bridge crossing the Shoalhaven River that I photographed while walking, lower picture.
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I covered 34 km on that day and was on the road for 7 h and 40 min, remarkably close to my standard 7.5 h of work per day. But looking down from my window, that full day of work as a pilgrim disappeared from my field of view in a matter of seconds – it felt as surreal as the moment I arrived at the Sydney Opera House.
The plane then veered inland, and I lost sight of my pilgrimage route.
Sydney and Melbourne are connected by a flight of just over one hour and they are both in the Australian Eastern Standard Time zone. It would be inexplicable to experience any sort of jetlag on such a short hop, but I did experience an acute case of ‘mind-lag’ when I got home
Astoundingly, nothing relevant came up when I googled ‘mind-lag’ so I will offer my very own definition of the term.
A symptom of jet-lag is the struggle to stay awake or to fall asleep when one should be awake or asleep. In contrast, the symptoms of mind-lag include a spinning sensation in the head and repeatedly saying, either out loud or in one’s mind: “I can’t believe I am here!”Mind-lag /mʌɪnd lag/ noun. The feeling experienced when the body seems to arrive before the mind.
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After re-uniting with my dusty backpack at the conveyor belt in the baggage re-claim area, I ditched my plans to take public transport home. Instead, I chose a scenic walk in hope my mind would catch up to where my body now found itself. A sort of self-medicating mind-lag treatment.
When I eventually reached my front door, I received the enlightenment that hadn’t arrived when I had taken my last step at the Opera House: pilgrimages don’t finish with the walk.
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