Zen and The Art of Travel

Several years ago I was in Miami on my way home from a business trip. When I got to the airport, I saw on the overhead screens that my flight had been delayed which caused a lot of my fellow passengers to miss connecting flights out of Atlanta. I tend to be calm about these sorts of things because there really is no use getting upset and mad about something beyond my control, in fact I even made a light comment to the man behind me in an attempt to lighten the mood a bit.

However, the woman in front of me and who was first in line at the check-in counter was a different matter. She immediately became a screamer and was yelling at the poor young lady behind the counter. It wasn’t her fault that the flight was delayed, but the screamer didn’t seem to care about that. She spent the better part of 5 minutes yelling at the flight check-in lady before she stormed off still yelling. As she stormed off, I wondered why she would react that way, especially to the person who has the power to really screw your flight schedule up if she so desired.

I was next in line and approached the counter. I noticed the young lady, who was about the age of my daughter, doing everything in her power to maintain her composure in front of me. She was so distraught that her hands were shaking. I felt so badly for her. She was just trying to do her job the best she could. I put my bag down and looked her in the eye and told her to just take a deep breath, relax and take all the time you need to get yourself together because it doesn’t look as if you will get a break anytime soon. I continued talking softly to her as she wiped her eyes and took a few deep breaths.

I chatted with her about the out-of-control woman for a few minutes until it appeared she had calmed down and was ready to continue with her job. She then put me on another flight for Atlanta and I began walking toward my gate. As I was standing in the security line, I glanced down at my ticket and was stunned when I saw that she had given me a seat in first class.

We often hear the word, “Karma” and I’ve said it myself many times; one gets out of this world what one puts in. Treat people like you yourself want to be treated. That’s all there is to it. It’s really quite simple.