How Would You Feel?
You bags are packed, your passport is in hand…all you need now is the warm weather, bright blue water, and tropical sands to get your vacation started. You arrive at the crowded airport and go through the motions of checking in and going through security. You find a seat at your gate close to a window to take in the bright sun and watch planes slowly move around the tarmac. One hour and 15 minutes later your “zone” has finally been called. You are experiencing an emotional high as you have been waiting to take this trip for some time now. Quickly placing your carry-on luggage in an over-head bin so others behind you can pass to take their seats, you settle in for the 5 hr journey ahead. Looking out of your window you find yourself slipping into your personal thoughts about life, family, friends, and the piña coladas, plantains, and conch fritters that await you at your destination. Your thoughts are abruptly interrupted as you realize your seatmate has arrived. You begin re -positioning your personal belongings to ensure there is room for his/her stuff when you look up and realized passenger 12B looks like:
Your heart beat begins to quicken, you are immediately nervous and feel your stomach muscles jerk into a knot. Your eyes begin to frantically search for “help” in those passengers around you who all look strangely busy, yet you realize this “front” is no more than them trying to bring less attention to passenger 12B. Your thoughts are going 1,000 miles a minutes. Should you try to change seats…not an option…the plan is already overbooked. You try to calm your nerves but know subconsciously the look of fear is written all over my face. You tell yourself to just CALLLLMMMM DOWN. But how can you calm down when this is probably the last flight you will ever take in your life. You want to just turn toward passenger 12B and yell “WHERE IS IT?…YOUR SHOE…IN YOUR TURBAN…THAT BRIEFCASE YOU ARE CARRYING?” But you can’t. You notice that people are sporadically looking toward your row with “curious” eyes. You begin your usual flight ritual by saying a prayer before taking off and add and extra “please lord let me land safely”. You turn towards passenger 12B who is reading a magazine, your eyes meet for a brief 2 seconds…in this short time you attempt to send a ”don’t play no sh*t today” message.
“This is Ian Frazier and I will be your captain today. The weather in Antigua is currently 87 degrees, winds NE at 7 mph, partly cloudy…”
Welp, its time to take off, no turning back. You were already forced to turn off your cell phone so the idea of any last minute “I love you” calls is out of the question. You are forced to come to the realization that the end is near. During your time on earth you have played the cards that were dealt to you and think you did a darn good job at it. You say one more final prayer before you settle in and deal with the LAST and FINAL card ”the Joker” that is coming your way. The plane is taking off and your eye lids are getting heavy..but WAIT…there is no way you are going to sleep with passenger 12B sitting next to you. Your plan is to keep your left eye on him at all times so that you can act quickly when he leans toward his shoe to ignite…before the thought is complete you are in a comatose like sleep….5 hours later your sheep counting is interrupted by…
“Welcome to Antigua, the current time is 3:32pm. You can now turn on any electronics or cell phones….”
You slowly open my eyes to make sure angels are not flying around you and there is no harp player sitting in the middle of the isle playing soft sweet melodies. But ALAS, neither is happening. Passenger 12B is reading a book and still in his seat…WE ARE ALIVE…WE ARE ALIVE…THANK YOU JESUS…..It is time for your row to get up and exit the plane..right before passenger 12B leaves he turns to you and says…”Hope you enjoy your time in Antigua, my shoulder is a bit numb from your 5 hr nap, but a little beach relaxation will do the trick.” You smile and politely apologize for taking advantage of the human pillow and wish him a great trip as well. But the smile quickly fades. You ask yourself, “Did I really sleep on his shoulder the whole flight…after assuming he would murder us all the first chance anyone took their eyes off of him…how silly of me.” You ask for forgiveness from the one above and promise to work on making assumptions and blind judgements. You collect your carry on bags, mentally give yourself a spanking and head off the plane. Once outside you realize you have a new sense of reasoning, thinking, and judging… you take in the warm fresh air, the smell of fresh sea water and head to the luxury hotel that awaits your….oh, and promise yourself that the flight home and many situations thereafter will be quite different.
Moral of the Story: As we in America know, horrendous things do happen but we should try not to generalize so much as we fight every day for others to not do the same towards us. I say this because I saw a man dressed similar to the one above who seemed to be praying in a metro station and immediately got nervous, hoping my train would leave ASAP. I quickly told myself to calm down because it was wrong of me to assume that he had malicious intentions. I would hate for someone to clutch their purse or follow me around stores (as some do) because they have lumped me into a category of people. It is up to us to try to break a lot of these judgments we have of others and we cannot expect this to happen if we ourselves continue to do it to other people/cultures/etc. everyday.
~SoSaditty~
Great point! I have had this happen myself. So I know where you are coming from. A sista was saying all kinds of prayers. But as said, it was judgmental and I was wrong.