Jet-lagged Musings and Meanderings

Heathrow

      I am writing this sitting in Heathrow for a long unnecessary layover as my arriving and departing flights are essentially in the same terminal and there were no lines at passport control. I have four hours before my flight to Prague. I am enjoying the flow of people and the slightly different shops than I am used to. The shops will continue to converge. It is inevitable fact. It is globalization. The people are, of course, the same but yet different. I am after all in another country on another continent. So, the people seem a bit different. I am not at O’Hare or JFK. It is more European, more international, though I am not exactly sure what that means. There are more languages being spoken certainly. I want to say that the people are more chill, but it might be that I am just tired and travel weary and, thus, I am more chill. I want to say people are just people everywhere. I know that this is both true and not true. I am just tired enough and not so well-versed in psychology and sociology to easily to communicate what I am trying to say. At least today, I have an excuse.
     For example, is the man next to me an ex-CEO or a retired landscaper? Is he from the UK, France, or Scandanavia. It is hard to tell. I went to order coffee at a cross between a Caribou Coffee (do any still exist) and a Starbucks called Caffè Nero. The young, east Indian heritaged, server spoke with such a thick British accent that I experienced George Bernard Shaw’s adage of “two people separated by a common language.” Then again, I am not sure as I am also in need of hearing aids. It is that kind of day where I am OK with dichotomies.
      I have my good camera with me. I want to take photos of the people and make a coffee table book that probably no one would buy: An Afternoon at Heathrow. It has probably already been done dozens of times in Pinterest and Flickr.
      In the department of idle observations whilst sipping on a Caffé Nero Americano, I was noticing what men were wearing and not wearing. The only fellows with coats and ties also had airport and airline name tags hanging around their necks. I also noticed what kinds of briefcases and bags men were and were not sporting. No one had an old-fashioned hard shell, carry it only by the handle, old fashioned briefcase. A few gents had soft bags slung over one shoulder. The vast majority, by far, sported backpacks. I saw one fellow wearing a Michigan hat but two gents with Spartan ones! I am fairly confident that I was the only fellow in all of Heathrow wearing a North Park University cap.

      I should have bought a pass to the British Airways lounge. I should have holed up in there and done some serious grading. But, I am feeling tired, yet serene, and people watching is exactly what I should be doing. Anything else would require more focus than I capable of mustering. And, my mind and spirit were more in the watching what others were doing than actually doing anything myself.
     Thank you, Heathrow, it was a nice little slice of life afternoon.

Republic Square in Prague

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