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​​Checking in: Airport

 

The airport had an unfamiliar appeal to me. There were many perfectly primped men in suits of every properly restrained color, none to flamboyant to stand out and call attention when in the boardroom. There was an equally strong presence of women in designer suits that had obviously been tailored to their perfect nip and tuck figures, and thus there was no need for flamboyance of color as their femininity that showed through the high dollar fibers marked their own statement of elegance and sensual grace. I doubted that many of them would be forgotten in the boardroom.

 

The businessmen and women wore gazes of either boredom or annoyance as they started their "normal" and ritual business day. They worked hard at distraction, reading this or that, applying the skills of their trade on glowing screens, all practicing their well planned diversions, anything to create a barrier to each other and the airport world around them. Their outward expressions denied the simple truth of long forgotten excitement, the beauty of flying, travel, and the fortunate existence they lead within the perk filled life of the executive.

 

Turning away, I preferred to watch the hustle and bustle of eager vacationers packed up to the hilt, too much luggage and happiness overflowing onto the business people sitting quietly subdued around them. The ecstatic tourists exuded such extreme delight on their way to unknown and exotic destinations that the surrounding unwanted pall of discontent from the suits was forced back into its appropriate place.

 

I sat remembering a time when I was jealous of those who looked so very happy and enthusiastic to start an adventure because it had been so long since I had embarked upon an escapade of my own. I fetched my thoughts forward, back to the present, remembering that I too was on an exciting journey and a smile started to emerge from deep within. It started in my heart, spread through my body, wrapped around my soul, and exploded upward in the form of a gleeful giggle upon my lips. I must have laughed too loud or wore too happy a smile on my face because my suit-wearing companions looked at me displeased as if I had woefully intruded into their den of gloomy discontent. Time to check in.

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