More than just a pretty face

A man walks down the street
He says why am I soft in the middle now
The rest of my life is so hard
I need a photo-opportunity
I want a shot at redemption
Don't want to end up a cartoon
In a cartoon graveyard

This week I find myself blogging from the familiarity of an airport lounge. As with many things in life I think you can enjoy airports as much as you chose to. Now I’m not saying that those 14 hour stop over between flights are ever going to be barrels of fun but in airports I do find the human analysis within me emerging. I like to put in my headphones, turn o something to set the mood, Simon and Garfunkle’s ‘Homeward Bound’ is my current choice, and try to gage what everyone around me in here for. That’s what I love about airports, everyone is here for a reason and everyone is feeling something.

To my right there is a younger couple, she has fallen asleep on her Kathmandu backpack and he is reading from his kindle. They’re both tanned and wearing comfortable shoes. It’s a pretty safe assumption that they’re backpackers but I try to imagine more. They look exhausted, suggesting they are at the end of a trip rather than the beginning. Is this their final flight before they make their way back home? Or are they from abroad with a long journey still ahead of them. If they were talking I would try to listening in and see if they are speaking with an accent or even in another language.

In front of me there are three men in suits sharing four beers. A business trip? They don’t look overly comfortable with one another so maybe they’ve just met or are nothing more than work colleges.

I like to imagine where everyone is from and where they’re going. For fun than the lounge are the gates. The gates are a wealth of greetings and goodbyes. If you sit at the gate and watch you can be witness floods of emotion; heartbreaking goodbyes and overwhelming welcome back hugs.

I think it brings us all back down to earth a bit more when we recognise the people around us as more than strangers, when we realise that they each have their own story and each of them is dealing with their own struggle. I guess that’s the point I really want to make, we all need to remember that everyone is dealing with their own troubles and the way they are treated by strangers can make a huge impact on how they look at the world, so we all need to be kind.