It’s the pandemic, stupid!
In mid-May I flew for the first time in 14 months. Four flights took me from NYC to Greensboro, North Carolina early on a Monday morning and back home late that night. In Atlanta I had to change planes to and from Greensboro. On that day I felt an exhilaration I never experienced while flying in recent years.
There was also an especially “good feel” rush as I dashed through the sprawling Atlanta airport. Frequent business flyers like me rarely are as upbeat as I was when hurrying to a connecting flight. I know. I’ve logged more than 1.5 million miles in the air with trips more than once to 46 states and 51 countries.
My kind of flyer tends to dwell on the annoyances and unexpected intrusions of air travel. Yet there is an unspoken code of compliance among us. We have learned begrudgingly to accept weather cancellations, mechanical delays, and occasional onboard malfunctioning restrooms as preordained curses.
The morning after getting home that “good feel” persisted. Yet nothing had really changed from past flights other than passengers were now wearing masks on planes. The interior configurations on the four planes I flew were essentially the same as those I had been on before. And the Atlanta airport, one the busiest ones in the United States, continued to be as sprawling as it was on my last trip through there in 2018.
Why had that “good feel” sensation lingered on after a 22 hour-cycle of exhausting travel? It didn’t add up. Surely it was far-fetched to think of it as an in-the-air conversion like the one St. Augustine experienced in the desert. It led him to repent his former life of sin.
It’s interesting, of course, how one event may trigger remembrances of earlier life moments. One recollection leads to another and soon you’re knee-deep in a groove of links taking you back to a distance past.
The Greensboro trip led
How many other “good feel stories” are out there? And what can we do build on the pluses that were experienced. Online some are saying the future will usher in a new Nirvana period of cooperation and goodwill. My bet is that is going too far on the optimism scale.
me to recall my Chiclet story as a 4-year old on my first flight from Havana, Cuba, to Miami. I also recalled how as a teenager I dreamed of being a pilot.
And I remembered how, in my earlier business flying years getting a window seat to see takeoffs and landings was special. Today the aisle is my ardent choice. So much so, I’ve changed schedules solely for that reason. It allows one freedom of movement.
A few days after returning from Greensboro I wondered if I should work at letting go of my “good feel” sensation. Yet I knew that, like many others, sometimes I can’t let go of curiosity for finding the “why” of something I did or experienced. Then, unexpectedly, you find an answer or at least a hint to your puzzle.
One morning the following week I was shaving. As I stared into the mirror, I muttered while scolding myself “It’s the pandemic ... stupid.” I realized that the pandemic had affected me positively. Psychologists can better explain the why of this. Maybe the pandemic provided a crucial background for developing a deeper appreciation of normality. All I know is about experiencing a good-feel sensation which is still with me.
Of course, this pandemic has taken its terrible toll of lives and personal loss. That can never be reversed. But it has had some positive effects. Other people may learn something about themselves as I did. My daughter who is now working from home has said it has helped create a new bond with her children.
How many other “good feel stories” are out there? And what can we do build on the pluses that were experienced. Online some are saying the future will usher in a new Nirvana period of cooperation and goodwill. My bet is that is going too far on the optimism scale.
Among the best articles on future of the post pandemic era is one from Arthur C. Brooks in the March issue of The Atlantic magazine titled “AOnce-in-a Lifetime Chance to Start Over.” It’s about preparing for a new and better normal. One better than in our prepandemic life. It has golden nuggets of sound advice.
And as far as taking responsibility for acting one of the most insightful is from Civil Rights activist Ralph Abernathy. He said, “I don’t know what the future holds, but I know who holds it.”
My thinking for this column resulted from one trip to Greensboro. My sense has long been that it’s never too late to begin acting on our to-do bucket list ... ... whether we fall in the 20-, 40-, 60-, or 80year-old range and beyond. And there is no better moment than now.