Note from Louisa

While I typically use the April issue to talk about the gifts of spring or the celebration of Bealtane, the rites from which many of our modern May Day festivities originated, I felt instead drawn to a follow up on last month’s essay on the impact of micro-connections. Several of you reached out to share your own meaningful moments interacting with strangers. Thank you for those beautiful stories – they are an inspiration.
 
Shortly after writing last month’s essay describing the power of micro-connections, I had my own experience of their transformative nature after boarding a flight between Denver and New Orleans. This was at the height of the TSA shortage and many of my fellow passengers were beleaguered after waiting in long lines and dealing with some short tempers. I found myself grateful as I prepared to finally settle in for my two-and-a-half-hour flight.
 
After about twenty minutes, I struck up a conversation with the young woman sitting in the chair beside mine who was on her way to her bachelorette party in New Orleans before getting married the following weekend. Her friends had booked seats toward the front of the plane and she craning her neck trying to see if she could locate them. She was clearly missing being with her friends on the way to their special weekend.

The once dreaded two hours flew by (pardon the pun) as we discussed her wedding plans and she showed me photos of her dress and the wedding venue. I learned that she and her fiancé met at university in a Harry Potter class that he took for an easy A but ended up challenging him philosophically and introducing him to his future wife. We discussed our respective experiences in graduate school. Hers in criminology and justice. I learned about her family “out east” and their travel plans for the wedding, as well as her musings about how her fiancé was planning to comport himself at his stag party.
 
My lovely seat mate educated me about the politics of redacting body camera evidence recoded by police officers, which is how she makes her living. She shared her hopes and dreams for her new marriage and told me of the house they are building together. I took pictures for her as the Southwest crew brought her a mock veil made of a paper crown and a garbage bag, inviting all passengers to wish her luck.
 
She was a breath of fresh air. My once dreaded two-hour flight was suddenly filled with whimsy, laughter, and the infectious energy of someone on the precipice of a life altering event. As we parted, walking up the ramp from the plane to the gate, I wished her a beautiful wedding and a meaningful life. She laughed and said “I never even asked your name”. 
 
I think it was clear to both of us that names were unimportant and unnecessary to our connection, as was our political affiliation, our religion, our ideology…  We just got to enjoy a brief glimpse into another life, the beauty and wonder of another human being.


Louisa