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Travel Notes
By John W. Kennedy | August 7, 2008
Taking a trip always affords someone who works in a Christian environment to see how the world is coping with life. If this week’s jaunt to Pittsburgh is any indication, some Americans aren’t exactly rolling with the punches. I ran into a couple of loud-mouthed complainers who make the Ugly American look good.
While eating in a nice seafood restaurant in the Steel City on Sunday, a fellow in the next booth raged for 20 minutes about what a miserable experience he was enduring: the fish was undercooked, the server wasn’t attentive enough, the menu had a filmy grease on it. He never addressed any of his complaints to the pleasant waitress, just the woman in the seat across from him. “I bet she can’t wait to get rid of us,” he said to his tablemate, who appeared to be his mother.
Monday night I was supposed to have an hour layover at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. Turned out I had 19 hours to wait because of the weather. I encountered another middle-aged man on a rant about this being the worst end to a trip in his life. His meek traveling companion, I suspect his wife, didn’t say a word. Just after we moved into a hallway because of a tornado warning, this fellow, at the top of his voice, let go with an expletive-laced tirade. He was irate about the airline giving him a hotel voucher the night before and a $15 meal voucher that didn’t cover his $38 steak dinner.
It turned out that I had to spend Monday night sleeping in a chair in Terminal F, with no voucher for a hotel or meal. There are plenty of worse places to be stuck. We should be grateful that we have uncontaminated food to eat and that we don’t have to bribe government officials to travel. As Proverbs 17:22 tells us, a complaining spirit can diminish our physical health.
On another note, I had some free time on the trip to peruse a Pittsburgh bookstore. I think I know why public opinion ratings for Congress are at an all-time low. Our elected officials are too busy writing books. U.S. Senators Arlen Specter, Jim Wells and Harry Reid all have new titles on the shelf, along with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Don’t these people have a more important day job? And there are slightly older books by a couple of other senators, John McCain and Barack Obama. They really don’t have time to write these days.
Topics: travel |
August 7th, 2008 at 11:44 am
I saw your TV interview in Pittsburg and thought it was very good. Not only did you have a lot of good thoughts for the audience, but I the interviewer was very well prepared and did a good job also.I guess encounters with loudmouths is just a sign of the times. Our times do not censor bad public behavior the way former times did. Too bad.
August 8th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
I used to have complaining attitude about having to do the family food shopping. One day the Spirit of God seemd to say to me, Let me get this straight, you can have anything in this store you want for you and your family, but your upset that you have to walk around and put it in a cart!
I got His point fast.
God bless,
ron