Airports

Recently, meaning yesterday, my long lost brother returned from the great beyond of Northern Alberta to grace Calgary with his presence for a few days. Since he is Mr.Money bags these days he flew down from LLoyd to Calgary and thus I was at the airport to pick him up. This got me thinking as I was standing waiting for him to disembark from the aircraft. I noticed that there are two distinct types of people at airports. One type of people are getting ready to say goodbye, and the other group are getting ready to say hello. I found myself mentally trying to place those around me into those two groups. For the most part it was simple, balloons and flowers = hello, awkward phrases about how things were = goodbye. Since there are really only 3 reasons to come to an airport, to say hello or goodbye, or to work, there is a great feeling of expectation. I love that feeling. A few weeks ago I found myself at the airport at the late and tired hour of midnight. I was there for only one reason, to say hello to Sharon and Ri after they got back from a trip to Thailand. I got to the airport just as they were getting in and I thought that I would have enough time to wander a bit before meeting up with them, granted wandering in an airport gets tiresome after 5 minutes. I wandered to attempt to find where they were, and I continued the wandering for quite some time. All the wandering only spurred on the anticipation of seeing good friends. I then met up with another friend Tim, who was also there to meet Ri and Sharon, so we wandered together and when we finally spotted them it was as if a great weight was lifted off my chest and much rejoicing ensued. I found that since there was only the one reason for being in the place, to have gone home without closure would have been disastrous emotionally. Yesterday I had a similar experience since the brother had gotten to Calgary early I was wandering in the same airport looking all around to see if I could find him, and I ended up standing waiting where people usually come from. Then I got tired of not seeing anyone so I went to the baggage area where I was grabbed from behind by the same brother who I was trying to find. In the one moment of being hugged I felt a massive amount of relief and had finally found what I was looking for. With much joy I embraced my brother and thus my spirits were lifted and perhaps the spirits of those watching were lifted as well.

That brings me to why I like Airports. I like Airports because none are the same, they are all different and beautiful all the same. Airports contain duty free shops that have great prices. Airports bring out deep emotions in people, infact both ends of the spectrum grief and joy. I have thought about going to airports when I am feeling down to revel in the joy of someone else, if only for a moment. Airports also have cutting edge bathroom technology, there is no need to touch anything in there, it does it all for you. And finally, airports have moving sidewalks that make you feel like some sort of Olympic hopeful. And that's why airports are one of my favorite things.