The Journey, and the Reward
Saturday, October 3, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
The comedian Louis CK was on Conan O’Brien’s show not so long ago and put our “I want it NOW NOW NOW!” culture in perspective. We live in a time of incredible technological advantage and yet so many people are, in his words, “spoiled idiots”. In particular he railed against people who complain about air travel, people who forget that modern jet aviation allows people to travel thousands of miles in the course of a single day. “Did you fly through the air like a bird,” he says, “did you take part in the miracle of human flight, you non-contributing ZERO??” The video’s well worth a watch.
I remembered Louis’s words as my girlfriend and I tried to make our way from cold, gray Pittsburgh to sun-kissed Aruba. It looked like we’d have a busy day, but after waking up at dawn we figured to be downing Balashis by dinnertime. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Unbeknownst to us there was a seven-card accident on the road leading to the airport and said road was shut down completely while police, fire and ambulance crews could respond. We left in plenty of time to make our flight…so long as we didn’t have to sit in stopped traffic for 75 minutes. Which is what happened.
When the road was finally cleared I ignored the scores of flashing lights along the roadside and drove like a madman for the airport. We still had a chance, and outside chance, to make our flight. We ran to the gate, grabbed the first person in authority we could find and presented our problem. Unfortunately we weren’t the only ones caught up in that traffic jam, and even though we’d reported 30 minutes before our flight we were told there was no one for us to board. They couldn’t hold the plane, couldn’t get our bags checked in time. In other words, we were screwed.
And I was hugely ticked. I’d done what was expected of me and now I was being told that wasn’t good enough. And a cursory review of other flights headed to Aruba led me to believe that we might not be able to get there until Sunday. And that, as you might expect, made me even more ticked off. “I have to be there for work,” I explained, hoping that the fact I wasn’t a mere tourist looking for sun and fun might help my cause.
But as I sat and stewed and made a nuisance of myself, Terry went to work. She was the US Airways person helping us out and after fifteen minutes of keyboard-clicking and phone calls to other airlines came up with a hop-scotchy itinerary that would get us to Aruba Friday night. She went above and beyond and I felt bad about all the things I said and thought and Tweeted about my selfish predicament.
We arrived around 10pm last night, the miracle of flight moving us two thousand miles before the calendar turned. Of course it was dark when we arrived but we woke up early to meet the beach and the sea and so I could introduce my girlfriend to the colors of Aruba:
It’s a little bit gray today, a bit overcast. Wait, that almost sounds like I’m complaining again. I’m not. It’s gorgeous today and it’s going to be gorgeous all week. And like many others who are making their way to Aruba today, we’re here.
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