i cringed as i boarded the plane and noticed the children sitting in the row in front of me. i don't like kids to begin with, but these two...well there was something especially rotten about them. for the next three hours they cried nonstop. no, not cried - shrieked. i believe katy called them "shrieking demons from hell." they were old enough to know better, but their mother had no control over them.
i pushed my earbuds further into my ear canals. patty griffin in full stereo:
"red lights are flashing on the highway
i wonder if we're gonna ever get home
i wonder if we're gonna ever get home tonight"
the song ended and i hit replay. again. and again. (i'm one of those who listens to songs over and over again on repeat until it all blends into one.) i didn't think the flight would ever end...
"everywhere the water's getting rough
your best intentions may not be enough
i wonder if we're gonna ever get home tonight"
after flight delays, hours of sitting on a runway, and those "shrieking demons from hell" i just kept hearing patty's haunting "i wonder if we're ever gonna get home tonight".
tonight, though, different lyrics jump out to me:
"but if you break down, i'll drive out and find you
if you forget my love, i'll try to remind you.
i'll stay by you when it don't come easy"
what would have happened on that plane if we had reached out in compassion to this woman and her two children? what if the whole plane broke out into children's songs? what if we had even just tried to talk with the kids? but we didn't.
with every scream i sank further into my seat. with every tear i tensed up a little tighter. i only got angrier and angrier, knowing that if it were my child that they would have behaved better. knowing that i would know how to handle the situation so much better.
i believe that the Creator made us to be in communion with each other. i believe that we were created to love and support one another, but that goes against the deeply embedded individualistic ideal we have here in america. we are supposed to be completely self-sufficient and keep to ourselves. it used to be that neighbors would come running if they heard a scream from a neighboring house. now we just assume it's none of our business. people are hurting and dying in our streets while we ignorantly carry on about our own little lives.
patty preaches something different though. patty says we have to stand by each other when the road is rough, that we should offer our hands in service to those who wonder if they'll ever get home again. it's easy to say that our circles of friends, our churches, our universities, our communities, our nation are strong when things are going well, but the true test of communion is how we treat each other when the going gets tough.
"someone will say what's been said before, 'it's only love that we're looking for'"
i bet that mother got off of that flight, reached her destination, and cried herself to sleep in humiliation for her kids' behavior. it was miserable for all of us - her included. what if we had shown grace to her and her kids? what if we had tried to help instead of silently stewing in our seats? i think we all would have stepped off of that plane much happier people. after all, it's only love that we're looking for...
