Airports are strange places.  A somewhat representative microcosm of society forced to be in the same place out of a need to get to a different place.  People who have no concept of personal space try to find someone to cling to, and start a conversation based on nothing just so they can close the gap.

Those with more rigid personal boundaries scan for places where they can have some isolation, only to find that boundaries need to be flexed.  Last year I was in the air during the actual presidential election, when a couple of political debates started becoming a little heated.  They quickly gave way to common sense, as the opinion-givers realized it’s not wise to argue in a confined space, thirty thousand feet in the air, especially when you don’t know who else has what opinion.   I hate coexist stickers and slogans. 

I get the premise, but don’t buy into the experience.  I guess to co-travel, you must at least somewhat try to understand, or appreciate, or even separate.  Maybe its educated tolerance, and in the best case – an open mind.  I still don’t think what happens at airports is coexistence.

Airport food courts are even stranger anomalies.  A typical food court in a shopping mall offers more space to find a seat.  You might have a choice to go eat outside on some bench, in your vehicle, or take your food home.  But at the airport, if you don’t want to take your food to your gate, which typically lacks a solid surface other than your own lap, you’re stuck finding a seat next to someone you have no idea about.

Sharing a meal is one of the most personal and meaningful experiences, and in a place like O-Hare people essentially break bread with complete strangers. How does someone prioritize where to sit?  Is it what seat you want, who is next to you, or does it flat-out not matter and is all about the food?  Do you affiliate because you want to, or have to?  Talk about elevator etiquette.  Do you make eye  contact, glance at your newfound temporary companion, or stuff your face?  I guess depends on why you chose that seat…  And if duty shops are duty-free, why the hell are they so expensive?

A human mind is not like most animals.  We’re not instinctively herd-bound.  Yet we seek out others alike to us because it’s essential to survival, and it’s a conscious choice we make to ensure our own well-being, or symbiotically – the well-being of others.

And when we are forced to reduce ourselves to the very primitive and almost self-unaware basic training selves, we become our best while being raised to the top by those who teach us, and those like us.