Following the 2005 NAFSA Conference in Seattle, Washington I caught the Red-Eye back to Philly before connecting to Pittsburgh. Across the aisle from me was a mom with a baby. The little boy was fussing and crying. I'm sure everyone around him was thinking "this will be a loooong flight if that kid cries the whole way." In a way it was funny, because he was almost at the talking stage and was trying to verbalize. Anyway, nothing his mom did could calm him down. Beside me sat a kind of big guy, Lloyd Burleson, from eastern Washington. Lloyd was on his way to the Ultimate Fighting Championships in Atlantic City, NJ. He kind of looks the part, too. Shaved head, goatee, black AC-DC tee shirt. Good sized guy. I didn't hear what he said to the little guy's mom, but pretty soon she hands the little fella (His name, it turns out, is Caleb. He is eight months old.) over to Lloyd. In two minutes Caleb is asleep in Lloyd's arms and he slept like a baby (yeh, I know) pretty much the whole flight. When he did awaken he was fascinated by Lloyd. Even after Lloyd handed him back to his mom Caleb couldn't take his eyes off him.
Those of us around this scenario were likewise fascinated. Turns out Lloyd has four young children of his own. He was on his way to the Fights as a Father's Day present.
Several of those around shared our stories with each other. For a brief period in time, in a metal cylinder six miles above the Earth we were a community.
Just a nice moment in the life...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment