Personal essays
On things that happened and didn’t happen
Deplaning
I’m just going to tell you a story. I think this is a story with a lesson in it. In fact, I think there are several lessons in it.
Forget the lessons and just read it as a story.
We had just landed in Prague and had arrived at the gate. Passengers had stood up and were crowding the aisles waiting to exit.
Sorry - waiting to deplane.
The guy next to me in the aisle seat sat reading his book.
On the one hand, I was annoyed and a little anxious. Shouldn’t he be standing up and waiting in the aisle. On the other hand, why shouldn’t he keep reading it wouldn’t be our turn for a while. The usual way is that row by row the plane empties from the front.
As the row ahead of us exited, the man in the aisle closed his book, uncrossed his legs, and stood up.
As I went to follow him a guy who was standing in the aisle pushed past me knocking me aside.
I said something to him, pulled my bag from the overhead bin, and followed him up the aisle.
The incident
I’m a compulsive checker.
Even though my Passport is in a zipped pocket, I feel for it several times along the way. I may even take it out of my pocket to check that its my current one.
So half way up the aisle I reached to the top of my head for my glasses and realized they were gone.
I stepped aside and tried to retrace my steps.
Once I thought about it I realized that when the guy pushed past me, his bag had knocked my glasses off of my head.
Oh please. No one step on them.
As the plane emptied, one of the stewards realized what had happened and helped me look. With the plane almost empty I was sure that my glasses weren’t there.
And then I remembered the guy who had pushed past me had placed his glasses into his backpack as he left the plane.
Maybe those were my glasses.
Maybe I could catch him in baggage claim.
The resolution
Even though I knew better, I catastrophized as I walked to baggage claim.
Maybe the guy didn’t have them.
Maybe the guy didn’t have any checked luggage and wouldn’t be there.
Maybe he’d have gotten his luggage already and left.
Maybe he’d tell me to f’ off.
Then what.
I have backup glasses but they’re an old prescription. My eyes aren’t that bad but I need them when I teach or present. Perhaps I can get a pair of cheaters at a pharmacy in Prague.
I got to baggage claim and saw the guy.
“Excuse me,” I said.
He turned and looked at me. English was not his first language.
“I think you have my glasses,” I said gesturing at his backpack.
He nodded and said, “I think I do.”
He unzipped the front compartment and showed me his glasses case and opened it up. They weren’t my glasses, they were his.
Then he held up a finger as if to say “wait a minute.” He looked in another compartment and pulled out my glasses. He told me he had felt them fall as he left the plane and thought they were his and put them in his bag.
He handed them to me and I thanked him repeatedly.
This could have gone a whole lot worse than it had.
Essay from Dim Sum Thinking Newsletter 271. Read the rest of the Newsletter or subscribe