It Is An Amazing World

Excuse me while I wax philosophical with thoughts from a work travel day.

I was at the Houston airport on my way to Frankfurt, Germany and engaged in two text conversations.

One was with a colleague who had left Japan the night before and was scheduled to meet up with me in Frankfurt the next day via Los Angeles. (Yes, he's crazy, there is a shorter way to get there but he's obsessed with getting to the 1K Club with United.)

The other was with another co-worker whom I had seen earlier at the Phoenix airport in the check-in line. He had made it to San Francisco on the first leg of a journey to Singapore with his family. (His adorable children were running amok, BTW.)

I then logged into a Wi-Fi Hotspot to work and also started an IM conversation with someone back in Phoenix and gave him an update on what the other two were doing.

It occurred to me (sans any alcohol) how amazing this all would have seemed to previous generations. And, how it's all so matter of fact to us now.

Back in my Grandparents' day, only the rich could afford to fly off to different continents with their families in tow. Everyone else was lucky to maybe take a boat or settle for a driving trip to exotic Canada or the border of Mexico. That's certainly a US sentiment; my European colleagues probably feel like it's completely old hat to go to another country.

And, if they did fly in the US back in the day, they'd be completely decked out, Mad Men style. My gang was all in jeans, t-shirts and scrubs. Because we cared about the comfort of flying and not about paying homage to the event that it used to be.

It's all so much "just another day" to us but it wasn't that long ago that the day's activities would have been, at best, described in a science fiction novel and not status quo.

Gotta say, I'm happy to be living in these times. But, if I could fast forward to where teleportation was the norm, I'd take it. Airport layovers suck no matter your potentially fantastic destination or the technology that you use to pass the time.

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