Home for the Holidays.

When I flew back to Pittsburgh the other day, I found myself on the outside looking into a more simple life.

When I got to my gate, I found myself sitting across from two women wearing white bonnets atop their heads, long light blue dresses, gray cardigans, and gray tennis shoes.

Since I make my best effort to take interest in the world around me rather than look at my phone when I’m in public, I had no choice but to pay attention to these two women who stuck out like a sore thumb in a sea full of modernity and contemporary culture.

By the time I’d sat down, one of the women had already gone and found food for the two of them and brought it back. I watched as they ate their tacos out of a white styrofoam to-go container. 

They remarked about each bite. What would be just another subpar airport meal to anyone else seemed like a delicious feast to them. I couldn’t help but notice the discussion they had about the tacos for the entirety of the meal. One would ask the other questions about the spice. Then the other would ask questions about the preparation. 

On and on they went with a seemingly endless list of questions about what I can only imagine were, indeed, sub-par airport tacos. 

Once they finished the tacos, I couldn’t help but take interest in how they’d spend the remaining time til we boarded our flight.

What surprised me the most was that their curiosity didn’t seem to end with the tacos. As soon as they were finished with the tacos, they turned their attention to the people and place around them. 

I sat and watched them for at least 45 minutes. I never saw them reach for a device to obstruct their curiosity about the world around them. At one point, I actually thought to myself, this is the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time. Just two people out in the modern world, doing what we could all do a little more of:

Marvel at the world we’re living in rather than escaping from it through technology.