The kindness of strangers
I was in an airport terminal at night, and it was almost completely empty.
I had been in a conference in London, and was trying to get home. The check-in girl was telling me that there were no seats available, and besides, the budget airlines had all given up and joined the regular airlines. That these were the last couple of days you get a ticket for such a low price.
It had been raining outside, and I was extremely wet and musty smelling. I was also quite desperate, since I had almost no money left and had no way of paying for a full priced ticket.
Suddenly, the girl started and told me to wait. She came out of her booth and walked up to me. She was a tiny little person, barely reaching my chest at full height. She grabbed something that was hanging around my neck and unfastened it. It was a small tag; apparently a cute little practice that the airline had implemented in the years prior, upon which travellers could share memories with each other about their countries, and hang them on each other's necks.
A little "hello, I was in your country last year" if you will.
There were standard fields on the tag that had been filled out, plus there was room for free-form writing. The standard fields told that the person who hung the tag on me had been to my country a couple of years before and had loved the visit, along with the date and several more odd bits of information.
The free form portion of the tag told that the person writing had met me in a bar during the visit, and that I had helped them finding lodgings and had taken the time to write down obscure places of interest to visit, and been a generally nice person.
When the girl read this aloud to me, I was suddenly filled with a very strong emotion, feeling almost like crying. On an impulse, I grabbed the girl and gave her a firce hug.
The girl smiled at me and walked back into her booth. She went back to the computer, typed something, looked suddenly up at me and said; "I have found you a seat. You'll leave in half an hour".
______________________
This was the content of the dream I had last night. Now, I haven't been to London in years. Besides, I'm generally not such a nice person, nor am I the type to spontaneously hug anyone, let alone a strange girl working in an airport. Moreover, in the interest of full disclosure, I have edited out the weird parts of the dream. In actuality, it wasn't at all that coherent. There was lots of "dream logic" involved, where really weird things happen that seem to make sense.
However, the dream affected me. It made me realize just how little is often required to make a connection between people, and how just a little kindness towards one another can go such a long way.
It also made me realize just how much I hate airports. Sheesh.
I had been in a conference in London, and was trying to get home. The check-in girl was telling me that there were no seats available, and besides, the budget airlines had all given up and joined the regular airlines. That these were the last couple of days you get a ticket for such a low price.
It had been raining outside, and I was extremely wet and musty smelling. I was also quite desperate, since I had almost no money left and had no way of paying for a full priced ticket.
Suddenly, the girl started and told me to wait. She came out of her booth and walked up to me. She was a tiny little person, barely reaching my chest at full height. She grabbed something that was hanging around my neck and unfastened it. It was a small tag; apparently a cute little practice that the airline had implemented in the years prior, upon which travellers could share memories with each other about their countries, and hang them on each other's necks.
A little "hello, I was in your country last year" if you will.
There were standard fields on the tag that had been filled out, plus there was room for free-form writing. The standard fields told that the person who hung the tag on me had been to my country a couple of years before and had loved the visit, along with the date and several more odd bits of information.
The free form portion of the tag told that the person writing had met me in a bar during the visit, and that I had helped them finding lodgings and had taken the time to write down obscure places of interest to visit, and been a generally nice person.
When the girl read this aloud to me, I was suddenly filled with a very strong emotion, feeling almost like crying. On an impulse, I grabbed the girl and gave her a firce hug.
The girl smiled at me and walked back into her booth. She went back to the computer, typed something, looked suddenly up at me and said; "I have found you a seat. You'll leave in half an hour".
______________________
This was the content of the dream I had last night. Now, I haven't been to London in years. Besides, I'm generally not such a nice person, nor am I the type to spontaneously hug anyone, let alone a strange girl working in an airport. Moreover, in the interest of full disclosure, I have edited out the weird parts of the dream. In actuality, it wasn't at all that coherent. There was lots of "dream logic" involved, where really weird things happen that seem to make sense.
However, the dream affected me. It made me realize just how little is often required to make a connection between people, and how just a little kindness towards one another can go such a long way.
It also made me realize just how much I hate airports. Sheesh.
posted by Völundur at 4:33 am
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