People Who Don't Look Like You

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Hanging around in an airport has always been somewhat torturous as the chairs are hard plastic, the food is of the fast variety, there's a lot of walking involved and there are freaking people everywhere!

Freaking people!!

And now that most of them are looking down as they walk, or talking on phones, they can be a tad irritating.

But on a recent trip I was seated in one of the chairs in an isolated area.

I had the i-pod on and therefore I couldn't hear any of the irritating sounds.

I could only watch.

People come in all sorts of interesting shapes and sizes.

Big ones.

Little ones.

Tall ones and short ones.

They are a variety of colors as well.

White, black, brown, beige, off-white, off-brown, red.

They all dress wildly differently.

There's the sweatpants and tee-shirt crowd (of which I am a proud member).

Then there are the business guys.

(They are strangely irritating to me...they talk into their ear pieces, they seem too dolled up to be real guys, and they have way too much fake confidence).

There are girls in yoga pants.

(Some who should be and some who shouldn't).

Women in pant suits and dresses.

Different packaging, I suppose.

And everyone seems intent on getting something done.

Here in America.

Sometimes I turn the i-pod off and listen.

The man from Asia talking in a language I don't have a chance of getting.

A woman from Mexico talking way faster than I can even imagine.

Different traditions.

Unique cultural backgrounds.

I do suppose that being in a crowd of people should make me feel queasy. It seems that any corner I walk around could be the corner that leads to my destruction.

But I'm not afraid.

Not on the plane or at the counter.

Not on the shuttle bus or at the rental car corner.

I kind of enjoy seeing the people who don't look like me mingling.

My agenda has little bearing on them.

Their agenda doesn't really concern me.

Are there reasons why I might fear those who seem different?

Perhaps.

It just never really dawned on me because I think most people are peace-loving, hard-working and tolerant.

I could be wrong.

It might be the very destruction of me.

But I don't care much.

Life would be boring if we all thought and looked the same.

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