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It's been a long time since I have flown across the country. This full United Airbus A319 hangs as if it is the Earth itself that moves, changing places almost sneakily below a cabin that is stagnate and unchanging.
Checking in, I was asked beseechingly to give up my sightly more comfortable window seat for a middle seat in something called "Economy Plus" so that a mother traveling with two young children could sit together. The thought that sprung to mind was that the middle was never a good place to be in any sort of passage, but the woman behind the counter read my hesitation and said "Please, sir, I have been asking all morning, we are about to board, and this is a mother and her children. They need to sit together."
Of course they do. And as long as there are middle seats, we must all take our turns in them, and better to suffer for altruism than for poor planning or crappy luck. I thought of BG, my friend in Southern California, who, as of this writing, is this moment graduating with a class of Agape Practicioners with something she termed an Ecclesiastical Masters, or the equivalent.
BG's faith and spirituality are woven into her very being. I admit to a complete ignorance of Agape, or what an Agape Practitioner does, but having metaphorically and literally sat at the feet of this remarkable woman and been bathed in the warmth that is her love of God, or Spirit, or just Love, I can only believe that Agape, if indeed it is an institution, is about to add into its ranks a vital force.
All of this flashed through my mind in seconds, as I thought how BG would fold this middle seat into her faith; a chance to relieve the stress of a harried traveling mother can only add more happiness into the world, and I sat in my middle seat as a spell of magic, adding just a touch more joyful energy to the universe
Moments later, I was asked again to trade seats, so that a newly wed couple could sit together for their honeymoon flight. I was given a window seat, in the upgraded section, at a bulkhead.
And now there are four people adding joy to the universe.
The folks sharing this row with me are an elderly couple, on their last trip to their summer cabin in Maine. He is 86, and blind, and senile and in considerable pain from his back. He is agitated, and confused and she was stressed because he kept asking me where we were, and placing his hands on my tray table and even my body and leg. I told her that he was not bothering me and asked them to tell me of Maine, as this will be my first visit there. She spoke eloquently of summers and children and grandchildren and lakes and whether he followed her, or was soothed by her tone, he smiled and stopped muttering, listening.
He leans forward when his back pain becomes too much, and we take turns gently rubbing it. More soothing with love than actual therapeutic know-how, and I think that for Don, on this passage, the middle means that he is surrounded by care.
And coupled with the added leg room, that makes it a pretty good place to be.
Checking in, I was asked beseechingly to give up my sightly more comfortable window seat for a middle seat in something called "Economy Plus" so that a mother traveling with two young children could sit together. The thought that sprung to mind was that the middle was never a good place to be in any sort of passage, but the woman behind the counter read my hesitation and said "Please, sir, I have been asking all morning, we are about to board, and this is a mother and her children. They need to sit together."
Of course they do. And as long as there are middle seats, we must all take our turns in them, and better to suffer for altruism than for poor planning or crappy luck. I thought of BG, my friend in Southern California, who, as of this writing, is this moment graduating with a class of Agape Practicioners with something she termed an Ecclesiastical Masters, or the equivalent.
BG's faith and spirituality are woven into her very being. I admit to a complete ignorance of Agape, or what an Agape Practitioner does, but having metaphorically and literally sat at the feet of this remarkable woman and been bathed in the warmth that is her love of God, or Spirit, or just Love, I can only believe that Agape, if indeed it is an institution, is about to add into its ranks a vital force.
All of this flashed through my mind in seconds, as I thought how BG would fold this middle seat into her faith; a chance to relieve the stress of a harried traveling mother can only add more happiness into the world, and I sat in my middle seat as a spell of magic, adding just a touch more joyful energy to the universe
Moments later, I was asked again to trade seats, so that a newly wed couple could sit together for their honeymoon flight. I was given a window seat, in the upgraded section, at a bulkhead.
And now there are four people adding joy to the universe.
The folks sharing this row with me are an elderly couple, on their last trip to their summer cabin in Maine. He is 86, and blind, and senile and in considerable pain from his back. He is agitated, and confused and she was stressed because he kept asking me where we were, and placing his hands on my tray table and even my body and leg. I told her that he was not bothering me and asked them to tell me of Maine, as this will be my first visit there. She spoke eloquently of summers and children and grandchildren and lakes and whether he followed her, or was soothed by her tone, he smiled and stopped muttering, listening.
He leans forward when his back pain becomes too much, and we take turns gently rubbing it. More soothing with love than actual therapeutic know-how, and I think that for Don, on this passage, the middle means that he is surrounded by care.
And coupled with the added leg room, that makes it a pretty good place to be.