“In any case, the ‘baggage claim’ scene at airports has an eternal value: after the death which to some small extent a flight always represents, everyone comes to pick up what belonged to them in a previous life. It is like the distribution of what each person will have the right to take with him into the hereafter. And by what miracle to you find the same cases, the same bags you had before you left?”
–Jean Baudrillard, Cool Memories
[Quote found in Geoff Dyer’s The Street Philosophy of Garry Winogrand]
Included in ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES:
THE AIRPORT PICTURES OF GARRY WINOGRAND
This made me laugh, as it reminds me of the one and only time I've flown. I went to Israel in 1998, and I was very nervous about giving my bag over. I was convinced it would get lost, so yes it was like a little miracle when I got to Israel, went to where we picked up the baggage and it was actually there!
Susan
Oh you are very wise, Susan, to have only flown once! Coming back from New Orleans a couple of weeks ago, the whole plane was seated and the flight attendant was going up and down shutting the bins and could not get one door shut and as the whole cabin was hushed, loudly asked, "Whose bag is THIS!?" Of course it was mine and I was not only forced to check it (I, too, have no faith whatsoever that I will ever be reunited with my belongings once they disappear into the maw of the plane, and had flown the same bag out in the overhead bin, no problem), but was also subjected to a public shaming! That was just one small incident of many such on one of many trips. And then I wonder why I have trouble sleeping the night before a flight!
As with your bag in Israel, mine also magically appeared on the appointed carousel. God is good.