.......airport connections

Yogis,

Flying back from vacation the connecting flight was delayed. A three-hour layover turning into five. There are only so many times you can walk the terminal wings and check out the shops and only so much mediocre food you can eat (although I NEVER complain about the food as I am old enough to remember what used to be.) Eventually the only option left is the bar........

Airports are a funny place.  Everyone only passing through on their way to someplace else.  Not a destination and not a place to accomplish anything specific. I notice the outfits each person consciously chose that morning while getting ready for their trip. Comfort clearly high on the list of priorities as I look about. Plenty of sensible shoes, sweatpants, fathers carrying dolls for their daughters and teenagers lugging their pillows along.  

I begin to observe the happenings at the bar. I watch a middle aged black woman in a conservative skirt and sweater sit in the open seat at the end next to a middle aged white man in an older suit. For a while they both face forward, ordering their drinks and snacks. She pulls out a book. Appearing from where I sit to not have much in common. Eventually something causes them to speak to each other.  An hour later as she is getting up to leave they are warmly shaking hands and appear to be sharing some form of information on their phones. Smiles abound with direct eye contact. Hearts facing. An airport friendship had sprouted.

I overhear the young blond white woman sitting next to me telling someone on her phone how she is delayed. She then slowly sips her glass of wine and plays with her phone. Being a young woman alone at a bar can be uncomfortable and the phone is the ally. An Indian gentleman arrives in the empty seat beside her.  I sense her eye gaze staying more toward my side. Yet again a conversation ultimately begins and soon she has swiveled her chair, and thus her heart, in his direction and I can literally feel the connection growing. 

I watched this over and over.  Young and old, male and female, different backgrounds, different beliefs. I decided we all need to be stuck in airport bars more often!

Much of the hostility that appears in our society stems from fear. Fear of different. Fear of the unknown. Assumptions made and held onto without ever having the chance to connect to test them.

The chance encounters we have during our day aren’t enough to draw our diverse population closer together. Even with neighbors only a couple doors down we often have surface relationships.  We must go deeper and I am not sure how that happens. 

I keep thinking that each of us should be required to spend one day a year in a mandatory service project where we are paired up with others that are completely different from ourselves.  Where we are forced to talk, work together, figure things out and look each other in the eye. Breaking down barriers by getting close enough to see that we aren’t that different after all. Breaking down fear. Facing our hearts toward one another.

Perhaps the inconsistency of our airlines has a bright side after all 😊

My heart is facing yours,
SARAH