"The Other Side of the Curtain"

There was the “Iron Curtain” which was some kind of imaginary line between communism and the rest of the world. There was the “Steel Curtain” which had something to do with the Pittsburg Steelers offensive line. And then there’s “THE Curtain”! “THE” curtain is made of cloth but nevertheless has lasted longer and been proven more imprenetable than the other 2 distinctly more robust sounding metallic curtains. I refer to the curtain that separates the front of the airplane from the back.

What’s the purpose of THE curtain? Well it’s to keep people at the back from seeing what’s going on up there. It’s to prevent you from seeing that the people up there are eating food with cutlery and drinking wine while you swill your 5 dollar Coors light, and eat crackers. It’s to prevent you from thinking that perhaps you might sneak up there and use their private washroom rather than wait in line with the rest of the beer drinkers at the back. It’s to prevent you from envying the leg and elbow room they have at the front, while you rub your elbows against the belly fat of the gentleman beside you. And lastly it’s to remind you that there is a difference -- that you can’t afford to be sitting up there -- that you are not quite as good.

Perhaps even more importantly THE curtain serves a special purpose for the people sitting in the front of the plane. THE curtain allows them to deceive themselves that they are alone in the world – that the people in the back don’t exist in any real way. It allows them to not feel guilty about being privileged.

I’ve sat on both sides of the curtain and as I sit here and criticize it I wonder briefly to myself why I never had anything to say when I sat in front of it. I think my conscience is clear however as I know that I always had a problem with THE curtain simply because of the things it seemed to signify. At the risk of overusing the concept I can see the curtain as a metaphor for our society. I acknowledge that there are people in this world that are better off than me, and even a whole lot more that are less so. The problem I have is when we try to deny it. When we turn a blind eye to the reality that some people eat and some people don’t; that’s when we become less human. That’s when we stop trying to fix our problems as a society. I tried not to feel superior when I sat in the front, and now I try not to envy those that are up there while I’m not. I believe that most of them are there because of their own efforts to succeed and as such deserve the fruits of their labour. I think if we simply acknowledge the realities of class, without trying to hide from it we would be much further ahead. I think it’s ok that some people have more money than others. What I struggle with is the idea that this makes them not just richer, but better.

THE curtain itself generates a kind of arrogance in otherwise normal people which I’ve even seen manifested in the flight attendants themselves. The scorn with which some of them send the back dwellers out of their area and back to the lineups at the rear washrooms is troubling to me. Especially when you consider that based on their salaries, they themselves would be behind the curtain if they were paying for a flight. That’s what THE curtain can, and does do to people.

So I say, “Take down THE curtain, tear up The curtain, burn THE curtain, maybe even take THE curtain rod down completely! ……..either that or let me sit in the front again!!!”

One of the reasons I have kept this blog going is because I enjoy so much the challenge of coming up with an idea and then finding a supporting quote that delivers the punch line. I wish I was a smart as the guy that said this….it is too beautiful! See if you agree.

“Conscience is the window of our spirit, evil is the curtain”---Doug Horton

love
peter