No Turning Back

The passengers were gathering at gate C in the airport terminal.  It was the usual 'hurry up and wait' routine and now there was plenty of time to wait.  The airport is the perfect place to see what all of humanity looks like, there are faces there from all over the world.

Airports are fascinating places.  So much activity, so many people and twice as much luggage and somehow, for the most part, everyone and everything gets to where it's supposed to be.  If someone did not get the chance to eat before arriving, there are plenty of neat little restaurants to satisfy and there is never a shortage of shops for that last minute souvenir.

Usually, the gate areas have huge glass windows that allow viewing the real airport action.  Watching a 747 taxi out, fire up the engines and then scream down the runway and lift off the earth in one fluid motion is a sight that never gets old.  

There were few who watched, except for the beautiful little blonde haired, blue-eyed girl who was just a toddler.  The rest were heads down, looking at their phones.  If they were not looking at their phones, they were asleep.  

Even when the plane was in the air, few bothered to look out the window.  Perhaps it was fear that kept them from seeing the magnificence of the planet.  The scenery below, that unfolds like a magic carpet, with designs, patterns, colors and textures did not seem to interest them.  So many missed watching  the southwest desert turn into the rich green of the Mississippi valley and the rolling mountainous hills of the east coast.  They chose instead to text, watch a movie or play a game.  One young lady must have had the best phone battery in the world, she never put her phone down for 3 1/2 hours and still had juice left when the plane landed at its destination.

Technology has taken over a human beings' life.  All eyes are glued to a glowing screen for constant and immediate gratification and there is no going back.  But, without it, it would not be possible to travel from one side of the country to the other, in just a few hours and experience the raw beauty of our home, planet Earth.