Back in the pre-9/11 days when I had projects in different cities several days a week and a harried business traveler could board a plane at the last minute, I got to the point of planning trips so carefully that I could tell by the very "feel" of my luggage whether or not I'd left something out.
In addition to the essentials, I always packed a tape recorder and business tapes, business magazines, an appointment book, the obligatory Elmore Leonard or Robert B. Parker novel for morale, and a couple of granola bars or a bag of M&Ms in case I got stranded somewhere.
Another item addressed was my morale. I decided early on to fend off boredom by becoming a careful observer. Although Sherlock Holmes level was never achieved, it was educational to look at people and not just through them, to notice routines and disruptions, and to get a sense of the morale of the workers in the airport, the car rental agencies, and the hotels.
It was apparent that making an extra effort to give compliments and courtesy to others was a way of easing through the hassles. In most cases, those gestures were appreciated, sometimes deeply so.
Recent Internet videos of bizarre behavior in modern airports reflect a low level of conduct I never encountered in those years of travel.
Either the videos reflect the Internet's tendency to collect multiple bad examples or things have truly gotten weird out there.
If it's the latter, private planes have never looked so good.
[Photo by Suganth at Unsplash]
No comments:
Post a Comment