I’m sitting at the Atlanta airport waiting for the plane to Springfield. I’ve been in Athens, GA for the past three days visiting my mom who is doing extremely well at the age of 91. I’m doing one of my favorite things: watching people and listening to the conversations around me. You may call it eavesdropping, but I prefer to think of it as absorbing culture. There are people like me with their heads down and their fingers tapping on phones and computers. There is a person traveling with a dog that is having a lovely conversation with another about the merits of various breeds. There is a family with a little boy, and he is fascinated by the plane he's about to get on for the first time. There is a student talking to his coach about what comes next for him.
Airports bring together people with only a destination in common. We are all going to board a plane flown by a pilot we don’t know, and we will all trust that this pilot will get us from the busiest airport in the world to Springfield. Strange how travel can cause people to cooperate with each other, trust an unknown person, follow rules meant to keep us all safe, break down a few barriers with someone you may never see again. Maybe, if we saw our passing through this life as a journey we are traveling with others, we could do a few things better. Just thinking as I wait to come home.
See you Sunday, Lori
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