Next month I will be traveling again, to and from a conference. I’ll be going by miracle.

More specifically, air travel. I’ll fly on planes that cost about $80 million each. The planes are part of an airline company fleet that cost about $19 billion dollars. Of course, planes are useless without airports—and we spend another $19 billion per year on airport capital improvements in this country.

The planes and airports would not do us any good without the people who fly them, load them, change the sparkplugs, and do everything else it takes to run an airline. My airline spends $6 billion on the help each year. (OK, maybe planes do not have sparkplugs, but you get my drift.) Another $4 billion goes for fuel.

I’ll have breakfast in Nebraska and lunch in San Diego. A few days with colleagues and consultants, experts and peers, listening and presenting (a first for me, this year!): a priceless experience. Then back to Nebraska.

If I had to drive or take the train, the travel would take days and days. Instead, I get the use of these billions of invested capital and all those talented people to do the trip in hours instead of days.

All this for a few hundred dollars. It is traveling by miracle. The company that serves me lives in mortal fear that the next company will figure out a way to serve me better for less money, so it is on a perpetual quest to provide even better value for my buck. As a customer, I’m really doing well in this transaction.

If I choose, I can be more than a customer. I could also be a percentage owner of the aircraft maker, the energy company that provides the fuel, and the airline itself. I could lend these companies money by buying their bonds, and collect interest from them.

On my journey, I will probably meet at least one person who complains about the service, or a slight delay, or the crying baby, or the security procedures. But I’ll be counting my blessings that I was born to this place and age, and enjoying the miracles around me.

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The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which investment(s) may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing.