Friday, June 30, 2006

Two Things That Happened Yesterday That Restore My Faith in Mankind

The airport is a microcosm of the world. All kinds of people of all ages and backgrounds. Behaviorwise, generally, thinking mainly of themselves and how to accomplish their own objectives.

Yesterday, in Detroit, I witnessed a young woman melt down when she couldn't get on her flight. The way they handle it at the podium at the gate is to immediately move the sobbing person to a seat. Apparently no crying at the podium.

This woman was not crying mad, she was crying upset, as if she was going to get into trouble. I'm not sure what the problem was but from what I could overhear, apparently the person who ticketed her made an error and there was no seat for her on the plane.

She kept saying it wasn't her fault and the airline person kept assuring her that yes, it wasn't her fault but HOWEVER, there was no seat for her on the plane because of this error and she would have to take another flight. She continued to cry quietly.

There was an adorable high school age girl at the gate who looked sort of like Sophie, if she had purple hair, who was also watching all this and she went over and gave her a hug and patted her arm and consoled her as best she could. It was so sweet. When do strangers act like that? I wanted to hug HER.

The second thing that happened was at the end of the flight. We were delayed on the ground out of Detroit so we were about a half hour late into Portland. You know how when this happens the flight crew sometimes asks you to stay in your seat so that people connecting can get off the plane first to get to their connection, but no one ever does? Well, on this flight people totally waited. They helped the connecting people, including adorable purple hair girl, with their carry-on luggage so they could hurry to get to their connection.

Hell, don't look for the hand-basket, the world may be okay after all.