Senior year of high school my best friend and I, who were both virgins, had to spend at least one night a week hanging around the San Francisco Airport. Why? The dirty magazines they let us flip through at the newstand, of course, and the sexy stewardesses tugging their luggage like dogs on a leash, but more than that it was everybody marching with such military urgency to their destinations, as if everywhere – everywhere in the world: Winnepeg, Tokyo, Milwaukee – were to be desired.

Desire
David Shields
From Collection – In Brief: Short Takes on the Personal