Today I am thankful for people who stay calm when everyone around them is going crazy.
Waiting, waiting, waiting….JFK Airport….9:30 PM….After a long flight in from the West Coast….Not a seat to be found at the gate for our connecting flight back to Rochester…As a matter of fact, we had to search just to find a place to stand!
The plane arrived from Miami. Passengers began trickling out, including about a dozen in wheelchairs. Not enough wheelchairs yet at the gate, so into our shoulder-to-shoulder crowd, airport personnel pushed the first group of wheelchair-bound folks.
Two of those waiting were elderly men, alike enough that they might have been brothers. Brother #1 began complaining that he needed his wife, who had not yet been wheeled out of the plane. His frown drew no sympathy from our tired group, although he voiced his complaints several times over the next few minutes. Brother #2 looked up from his seat and asked us where the next flight was going. He then made small talk while, he, too, waited for his wife to join him. Although clearly tired, his face had a look of curiosity and acceptance, calmly observing the waiting throng that now included a couple of families with sobbing children.
Which brother made the wait a little bit easier for everyone around him? Which brother simply added to the general crankiness?
I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit since we got back home and admit that I may be a bit more like Brother #1 than Brother #2. Hmmm…Seems like something to work on.
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