Connections

“As you prepare to travel out in the world, remember it will always feel smaller with a little kindness. Because we know the most important connections we make aren't between places, they're between people.” Delta Airlines

I’ve only been out of the country twice.  During the summer of 1975 I traveled internationally on a college choir trip.  Our main destination was a performance in Stockholm, but we also traveled and sang in Zurich, Oslo, Copenhagen and London.  Visiting that many countries in thirteen days was quite an undertaking.  The musical highlight for me was singing in an ancient cathedral outside of Stockholm. Our choir had rehearsed and memorized German double motets in our practice room in Birmingham, Alabama.  The two choirs sing antiphonally. But then in that setting in Sweden, we divided across the chasm of the cathedral. In that split chancel choir loft we sang those marvelous double motets where they were created to be sung. I sneaked a peak at the tourists below me who were transfixed by the beauty of the music as it echoed from wall to wall and ceiling to floor.  I was transfixed as well. I’m affected as I think about it now.

Then in April of 2003 my wife and I spent a week in Santiago with our son who was there on a college mission adventure. The highlight of that trip for me was a day trip to Vina del Mar.  That place was the most beautiful ocean side setting I had ever visited. On a gloriously beautiful day,  I witnessed the Pacific there in all its  majesty and splendor as the afternoon sun danced across the water and the breaking waves.

Delta suggests that the world is made smaller with kindness, and that is so true. But I would say that jets have a lot to do with that too. I’m about a 90 mile drive to Atlanta and then about a 20 hour flight to nearly anywhere in the world.  Delta’s ready when I am, but I’m just not ready.  You might say that I’m a domestic kind of a guy.  Most of my life revolves around northwest Georgia and the greater Chattanooga area. I drive to Alabama and Indiana quite often to visit family and friends.  I travel less often to Florida, Texas, Missouri and Arkansas. And again, these places aren't about places, but about people. About twice a year we let Delta take us to California to visit our son, daughter-in-law and her family.  Yes, in spite of local opinions to the contrary, California is part of the United States and is a domestic flight from Atlanta. So there you have it. Except for occasional vacation destinations, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, California, Alabama, Indiana, Texas, Missouri and Arkansas are pretty much where I “travel out in the world.” The fjords of Norway without a doubt displayed the most incredible beauty I’ve ever witnessed.  But every afternoon the sun sets over Lookout Mountain and I only need to walk out my front door to see it.  The marvelous Cloudland Canyon is about a thirty minute drive from where I sit. The hiking trails and cascading waterfalls draw hundreds of thousands of hikers and spectators from all over the country to this state park every year. Fall Creek Falls State Park is about an hour northwest of here.  It's as beautiful as it sounds.

Delta is right that the connections between people are more important than the connections between places, but for me to see those people Delta’s connections are very important.  When I step off the plane from Chattanooga  into the terminal in Atlanta, I want to look at the digital board and see a flight, a gate and a time of departure. And I hope and pray it all matches what’s on my itinerary.

Delta Airlines ends its welcome video with “Thank you for letting us be a part of your journey.” My journey. That always catches me a bit off guard.  I just think of it as a flight and Delta thinks of it as a journey. I think the next time my wife walks to the mailbox and back I’m going to ask, “How was your journey?”  And she’ll look at me and say, “Looks like we got some bills. Airmail."