Heathrow this morning was shrouded in a shawl of grey. Sat in the cockpit, on a wool shag Boeing jump seat, behind the pilots as they propel more fuel into the engines. Faster, faster, faster, until the point of no return, after which the wheels lift off and the ground drops away beneath.

Climbing as if on a log flume at Chessington World of Adventures, being dragged upwards on a track that is imperturbably fixed. Fields become patchwork, and cars become trawling pinpricks, as the steady climb continues. Air traffic control talk through the headset, a language of uninterpretable signs, symbols, acronyms and anachronisms.

“10,000 feet”, one pilot says to the other. “10,000 feet”, the other repeats. Dollops of cream rest aside wisps of vapour, as the patchwork blurs into a rippling green and brown. Bounding along currents, swimming in clouds.

Blindness ensues, like only the brightness at the end of the tunnel, before we burst into the Big Forever Blue.

33,000 feet above the surface of the Earth, there are no impediments. No adulteration of the Blueness. It is the colour of David Bowie’s Sound and Vision, an electric blue so profound as to make one gasp.

Teleporting into an Amazonian denseness of concrete and steel. A land of pavement vents that belch suspect fumes from the corners of their straight-lipped mouths. Seas of New Yorking New Yorkers, with no sense of how hilariously fantastical this all is.

A storybook manifestation of Elf, Taxi Driver, Enchanted and GoodFellas. Black Swan, Madagascar, Home Alone 2 and Breakfast at Tiffany’s. West Side Story and When Harry Met Sally and Coming To America and Curious George.

“This is all a videogame”; “Your life is a movie”; “We’re living in a simulation”; “It is all but a dream”. Stoner-istic platitudes, that feel so clichéd as to be nonsensical.

But each of these expressions represents a very sincere and real attempt to get at the fundamental truth: this is all so unimaginably surreal. It is far beyond the pale of reality; far beyond the reach of anything that could ever make sense.

On days like today, the nature of this Great Appearance we call Life is obvious. It is all one Magnificent Laugh. The trick is to recognise this quality through every waking moment.

Stop stressing. Stop worrying. Know that above this layer of grey and fog, is the Eternal Blue. The appearance of dreary and mundane is illusory.

Wake Up…

Wake Up!

Wake Up.