Professionalism

Counting Our Blessings

November 08, 2007

 

If you read last week’s Blog, you learned about Halle, a young woman I met a few weeks ago on a delayed flight from Chicago to Atlanta. It turns out that Halle was not the only interesting person I met on that particular flight.
 
Seated in the same row that Halle and I shared was a gentleman traveling to Atlanta to be with his daughter as she underwent surgery the next day. Was the surgery unusually dangerous?  Not really.  The gentleman’s 29-year old daughter would have her tonsils removed. She was a little scared, though, and this particular father wanted to be there for her.
 
Seated opposite me and across the aisle sat another gentleman, who drew my attention long after our flight had taken off and I had turned on my computer to work. This gentleman seemed to scan my laptop screen now and then. It seemed odd, but before long, I realized that he was attempting to attract my attention so we could talk.
 
It seems that earlier that same day, this particular gentleman, had driven his wife, two children and a dog away from the San Diego fires, deposited them into the arms of his sister-in-law and then dashed off to catch a flight. He wore the only clothes he was certain he now owned and had absolutely no idea at all whether his home had survived the blazes.
 

The flight turned into an amazing experience. I had boarded the plane and taken my seat feeling terribly sorry for myself. My flight had been delayed, and I was going to get at least one hour less sleep that night, something which I viewed as not insignificant given my harried travel schedule. Then I met three people, the fiancée of a soldier stationed in Iraq, a father worried about his daughter, and the head of a family no longer certain that he still owned shelter for his wife and children, and I realized quickly how terribly lucky I was and am.


 




 



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