Landing the Plane

This summer my parents and I went to D.C.  It was an unbelievably fantastic trip which could have been shortened by the murder of a small child on the way there.  Luckily, that tragedy did not occur and I (the potential murderer) am happily teaching 32 small children.  Reassuring?  I know.  That's public education for you.  But let me explain:

Whenever I fly, it is guaranteed that I will get seated by someone who cannot fly normally.  Typically.  Routinely.  The way most people fly.  It is a law, just like I will always, invariably, pick the longest checkout line at the grocery store.  On flights, I end up by the person with a dog who is whining, or the old single teacher who tells her life story as she shares her bag of trail mix or--in this case--the child who makes rational people who truly actually like children begin to want to hurt them.

Our flight to D.C. had gone fairly well.  I was reading a book.  We had eaten our microscopic bags of peanuts and had our cup of juice and were preparing to land.  As the plane began to descend, the child behind me began to scream.  Thinking the child was in pain, the flight attendants rushed over to help.  They gave ice, they showed how to pop ears, they did everything they could think of.  However, this child was not in pain--at least not physical pain.  This child was suffering from the pain of not getting what he (despite the girly scream, exiting the plane revealed our high-pitched friend really was a boy) wanted.  It was likely that never before had this child not had someone buckle to his screams and give him exactly what he wanted.

Through the screams I understood that he wanted to get off the plane and wanted the whole thing to just be over.  His mother was very "patient."  She just let him scream and scream and scream right into what was once my eardrum while calmly saying things like, "See?  You're getting worked up."  She even turned to the baby in her arms and said, "I sure don't like it when your brother screams like that" (as if the baby was going to make him shut up or somehow Screamer would just absorb the message and decide to stop).  Did this mother think she was going to be winning some sort of Parent of the Year Award for staying calm under difficult circumstances?!

My nerves were already frayed when the pilot announced that due to unforeseen circumstances, we would be unable to land for some time yet.  There was one thought in my mind: Either Screamer or I would not make it off the plane alive.  I wasn't sure yet who it was going to be.

I am happy to report that we all made it off the plane--the angry passengers, the extremely annoyed flight attendants, the "patient" mother, the mellow sibling, and Screamer himself.  While I also made it off very much alive, my ears continued to ring through the evening and into the night.

As I reflected on my near career ending flight ("4th Grade Teacher Jailed After Harming Crying Boy on Plane") I realized a few things.  Many of us are little Screamer at times in our lives.  We are all on this flight called Life and as long as it's not too bumpy and it doesn't hurt, we seem to do pretty well.  Every now and then, though, we get some turbulence or even have a long or rough landing and it's hard to make it home.  There are people all around ready to help, willing, trained.  But rather than listen, we just scream.  We don't want to make the situation more comfortable or bearable--we'd rather just whine that we want it to be over, often not realizing that frankly, that is NOT an option.

It is true that some people do better with flying than others.  They seem to get less stressed out, they may handle any pain or discomfort better, or it just may not be as painful for them.  However, everyone on the flight has two options.  Either let the plane fly and go along with it, or scream while it happens anyway.  Either way, that plane is going to take off, that plane is going to do what it has to do, and in the process, that plane is going to get its passengers Home.

I won't tell anyone what to do with their lives but I will say if you are going to scream--you may want to avoid people with a tendency to kill.
;)

P.S.  To anyone who is actually concerned: I never actually considered harming "Screamer."  Just giving him the good old hand-over-the-mouth treatment we've all gotten at least once.