Weekly Message from T. J.

This Guy’s Crazy

As I sat in the airport waiting area, we heard the first sign of trouble. “Ladies and gentlemen in the waiting area, we are getting information now from Canada air traffic control that due to weather and traffic over Toronto, we are looking at about a four hour delay taking off this afternoon. We’ll keep you advised of any changes.” My intuition and my travel experiences said that I might be in for a long evening in Detroit. And not much later, it came: “Ladies and gentlemen in the waiting area, the flight to Toronto has been cancelled by Canada air traffic control. You will all be automatically rebooked. Please be patient.”

Since I was near the desk at the gate I was able to speak with an agent who booked me on a direct flight the next morning, and I was considering where I might stay in Detroit that evening. Then the gate agent, in response less to my outwardly calm demeanor, and more in response to the meltdown of a passenger on my left, said these words seemingly to no one in particular, “You know, most people don’t realize that renting a car and driving to Toronto from Detroit can be faster than flying.” Challenge accepted.

I had nothing at all to lose by trying to convince someone to let me drive a car across an international border and leave it there. If I were unsuccessful, I would be in a hotel in Detroit for the night and fly out in the morning. The only difference would be I would have spent a little less time talking to rental car companies. But before I departed, I decided to make my own gate announcement to the forlorn gathered dejectedly there: “I’m gonna try to rent a car and drive to Toronto. Anyone wanna come with me?”

Now, if life were a movie, this would have been the moment when a plucky group of lost souls gathers to overcome their dilemma and make lifelong friends in the process. But life isn’t a movie. People just stared. One young man, if I wasn’t mistaken, shook his head at me in an almost embarrassed gesture of, “This guy’s crazy.”

I understand him, really. I know there have been hundreds of times that someone has an idea, an invitation, a way of welcoming me, and I either didn’t understand it or I couldn’t be bothered. Who knows what kind of adventures, what kinds of stories, what kinds of movies my life could have had so far by saying “yes” a few more times to something that seemed surprising or different, especially when I didn’t have much more than an hour of my time to lose. Well, I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about chances I never took, but I know I’ll consider more seriously and with more humor the suggestions for adventure, difference, and creativity in the face of disappointment I find the in the future. Because when the credits rolled on this movie, there I was, flying solo in a Kia Soul, making a mad dash for the border, on an adventure I never saw coming.

And may it always be so.

Blessings,
Rev. T. J.
minister@unitariansofhi.org