hospitality

When we feel rushed for time, the first thing to go is hospitality towards one another. This though came barreling at at O'Hare airport today. My flight had been delayed for 2 hours. People were getting impatient and were trying to get the poor women at the desk to make the flight take off faster (1. - there wasn't a plane for us to get on and 2. - they don't control the weather). As a result, when the plane arrived and we could board, the women were so flustered that they skipped right over allowing parents with small children and elderly in need of special assistance on first.

What happened next broke my heart.

A mom was trying to juggle, her luggage, a stroller, a car seat, and 2 kids under the age of 3 by herself. She was in one of the last zones to get called, and the kids were obviously well past their nap times. As she tried to half push, half drag her caravan to the ticketing counter to scan her boarding passes, one of the women working the counter asked if she needed help. She sighed and said yes. Then the women working the counter just took the stroller from her (which one of the kids was in) and told her that she should have check it earlier.

Really? You forgot to give this woman extra time to load her caravan on to the plane and that was the best you could do? Scold her. But this woman working at the airline counter could just as easily be me - when I get flustered, when we get flustered, hospitality towards others is our last thought. We become so inward focus, or go into crisis mode, that we forget that we are called to show each other love, kindness, and respect.