He was staring at me.
Okay, it was only for a minute or so, but I was surprised I kept his attention that long. After all, he wasn’t even one (or at least that is what my “baby-dar” was telling me) and this was a pretty exciting aircraft.
Some freak out when a baby sits next to them on a flight. While I will admit I truly do detest 4 hours of a screaming child, I find those occasions are pretty rare, and more often than not–the baby can be pretty awesome.
So I watched this little guy and his parents held him and he checked out the world. A plane can be a fascinating place for kids. There are so many new people, so many new sounds, so many new things to see. The airplane window fascinates even the tiniest among us–or at least that is what my experience has shown.
I was glad this baby was near me as it gave me a quick pause in my crazy schedule to reflect. I’ve already been on 15 flights in less than ten days, and the repetition of it all often makes me just simply fall asleep. After about the seventh flight, I rarely even began conversations with those sitting around me, just trying to get in a few hours of sleep before I headed to the next plane.
But this kid was curious–he was fascinated, and it reminded me of my appreciation of this amazing thing I get to do in the fall–fly.
In a few more years, his curious glances will be replaced with curious questions. I could hear a toddler a few rows back bombard his mom with a rapid-fire investigation of such gems.
But then I looked at the businessmen around me. I reflected on my own habits.
Cell phones, laptops, a newspaper, and silence.
Curiosity wasn’t there.
Fascination wasn’t there.
It had been replaced with routine and boredom.
Rather than waiting to take off, the older people on the flight were already processing what we had to do when we get home.
The creativity was replaced with a to do list.
Our world needs more than this.
So today, add one more thing to your to-do list:
get curious