My guess is that there are about two power outlets per every 100 ticketed passengers around the Delta gates at Chicago's O'Hare airport. During a recent trip there, I wandered around and actually found outlets near an empty seat between two gate areas and made a bee-line for them. I put down my backpack and Chai, and started to take out my laptop when my outlet partner broke the bad news to me. Neither one worked. Ugh! I took a deep breath, sat back, and tried to think of something I could accomplish without running down my laptop battery before the flight.
When I travel for business, I try to get as much work done on the road so I can be fully available for my family when I get home. I enjoy chatting with strangers, but I typically don't get into longer conversations. Now I had the time so I asked my outlet mate - I'll call her Doreen - where she was from. She was a large woman who was about 60 and looked rather out of place among all the business travelers. I wasn't prepared for her story (which I've modified slightly for privacy's sake).
Doreen was going home to the West coast after having traveled to Asia. Her son and daughter-in-law live there with their two small children. She strongly believed that the children were in a risky situation, particularly because of the six-year-old girl's health condition. After many conversations with her son, Doreen put every penny of her savings into one two-way and two one-way plane tickets so she could bring both children back to the States. She had stopped in Chicago to drop them off with another relative for a couple of weeks so she could go back home and make arrangements to take over parenting them. Bless her heart, she had hosted a birthday party for her granddaughter the night before at Chuck E. Cheese's (the girl's first meal in this country) and she commented, "Grandma, why are all the children screaming?" Welcome to the USA!
Doreen asked if I could watch her stuff while she checked to see if her flight was boarding soon. She could barely stand up and really struggled to walk with her cane. When she came back, she told me that she'd fallen in a freak accident at work a few years ago, hit her head, and suffered a severe back injury and minor brain damage. In the course of her recovery, she had gained a significant amount of weight and has had to deal with the negative stares and nasty comments.
I was astounded by the refreshingly honest way that she was dealing with the aftermath of her accident, her challenging financial situation, and the stress of suddenly parenting again. She was happy simply to be alive and was pulling out all the stops when she was really needed. We continued to talk about everything from global events to the outlet population in airports to having time to appreciate the beauty of nature. She reminded me of a smart college professor in the way that she could carry on an integrated, global view conversation. After what seemed much longer than 20 minutes, a gate agent announced that my flight was boarding. I didn't want to say goodbye to my new friend.
I was getting settled in my seat on the plane when I realized that I had been so engrossed in our conversation that I had forgotten my sweater by our powerless outlets. I battled the flow of people getting on the plane and reentered the terminal. I glanced over to where we had been sitting and Doreen was gone. My sweater was gone, too. As I was about to reboard, the gate agent handed me my sweater. He said that a woman told him that I'd probably be back for it. So my final touch point with Doreen was her making my life a little bit better.
I had a lump in my throat as I walked back to my seat. Oh, how many times I consciously or unconsciously judge people on first impressions. While making quick assessments is a practical life skill, it is harmful when I carry it over to assuming that I know someone's story. Doreen reminded me of the depth and power of God's unconditional love and grace for every person on this planet, and the joy I experience when I listen and extend a measure of the love and grace I've received to others.
Stay tuned for next week's Twinsight: Read to Enlarge Your World.
Your story targets a prejudice that has convicted me several times. It's easy to judge someone who has a struggle I've never had to suffer. Yet again, I am shown how capable I am of thinking in a way that certainly grieves the God who made me. Thank you.
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