Her bouncy excitement was a welcome relief to the predominant anxiousness that most of the adults were exuding around her. All standing in close proximity to each other, all poised to take off like horses at a racetrack, all waiting – very impatiently – for the gate agent to begin boarding the airplane.
All, except the adorable, and chatty, little girl who had shared with anyone who would listen that this was her first time on an airplane. “I’m flying for the first time!” “I’m going to be above the clouds!” “I’m going to fly faster than any bird flys!”
Well lucky me, the youngster ended up sitting next to me. And as we were getting settled her mother prompted the little girl, “Do you remember what we talked about when we’re on the plane?” And without skipping a beat like a doctoral student about to defend their thesis, “Yes mom, flying is a privilege. I am to be polite to all the other passengers and especially to the people who work on the plane.”
I could not help smiling as I heard this small human recite these words. And at the same time I thought maybe all of us on the plane should recited those words…
It also reminded me what a spiritual director once invited me to consider, “What would it be like to look at every person and every situation through the lens of privilege and blessing?” And here, out of the mouth of a child was that encouragement being manifested. While my sense is most of the folks on the plane had no sense of the privilege and blessing to be able to fly this little girl clearly saw the entire endeavor as a privilege and a blessing.
It certainly caused me to pause and reflect on how many moments, encounters, experiences do I miss that are in fact a privilege, are a blessing.
“But no matter the medicinal virtues of being a true friend
or sustaining a long close relationship with another,
the ultimate touchstone of friendship is not improvement,
neither of the other nor of the self,
the ultimate touchstone is witness,
the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another,
to have walked with them and to have believed in them,
and sometimes just to have accompanied them
for however brief a span,
on a journey impossible to accomplish alone.” – David Whyte
As one of my favorite newscasters always signs off, “Thank you for the privilege of your time.”
BP