Talk will not boil rice – Chinese
Proverb
Well, it finally happened. I had to take a business trip
this past week and the only reasonable way to travel was by air. I am not
overly fond of air travel. It’s not that I object to being scrutinized by the
TSA. The men and women in blue at our regional airports appear to be
well-trained professionals, quite courteous, efficient at processing all sorts
and conditions of ticketed passengers and their full-bodied massages are NOT to
be missed.
No, the problem with air travel is not the security, but the
means by which it takes place. As we all know, airlines have made certain
cutbacks to keep costs down. Passengers are granted access to seats just
slightly wider than the small end of a baseball bat (and with about as much
cushioning as a two-ply bathroom product might provide).
My trip to Arizona was uneventful. I was treated to a cup of
coffee with about the amount of flavor as the third or fourth use of any one
scoop of budget-grade coffee might be expected to provide in a twelve cup pot.
If the cup had been glass instead of Styrofoam, I believe I would have been
able to read the in-flight magazine through it.
I am sure Juan Valdez himself should have parked his donkey
on the side of his coffee-growing mountain and addressed the flight attendant
in a strongly worded infomercial about his handpicked products being so badly
misused, but alas, he has apparently been grounded (an ironic end for a coffee
farmer). Perhaps they discovered he was just a washed up old has-bean, which
would explain why we haven’t seen him in any coffee commercials in ages. Or
maybe he and Mrs. Olson eloped and ran away to Java. Who can know such things?
Outside of the coffee issue, though, the trip was pleasant.
Sitting on my bat, I thought about baseball and wondered how my Mariners were
doing. I shouldn't have bothered. The good news is they are only two games out
of first place in their division. The bad news is that it appears they will be
twenty games out by the end of August. Oi vei!
I was going to watch a movie on my tablet but the drone of
the plane’s engines made that impossible. Even on full volume, I couldn't hear
the dialogue or music. I am sure I would have liked the movie. It included some
of my favorite actors and actresses and appeared to have some comedic moments,
as well as spots of profound meaning and revelations of deeper truths. I didn't
have access to closed captioning, so ended up putting my electronic device back
into my carry-on bag.
I will also tell you I tried watching the film later at the
airport, but the noise of people coming and going, and the constant reminders
not to leave packages unattended or to not accept packages from complete
strangers also impeded my movie watching pleasures. I may have to invest in
those special noise-canceling headphones some day, but have no idea if they
would work any better than what I was using.
So, the flight down was flavorless, noisy, and uneventful.
Such goes life. It has its ups and downs. No matter how
poorly we may consider an experience, it helps us appreciate more what we have
when that experience has ended. If it was good, we are left with happy
memories; if it was hard, then we are relieved when it has ended.
I think that was some of what the apostle Paul meant when he
said he really didn’t let things get him down. When in prison, he and his
companions belted out their songs of faith; when flogged, beaten, stoned and
left for dead, Paul was glad it was for sharing Good News, and not for some
sordid crime (like murder).
While we like to think good things happen to good people and
bad things to bad, the fact is there is often no correlation between the two.
We simply keep our seat belts fastened, roll through the turbulence with our
insipid beverages of choice, and rejoice when we land. I rejoice in its landing
for that tells me I’m nearly home!
Anyway, I’m just glad to be off the small end of the bat in
this, our valley.
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