Airports, travel and a brush with history

I used to enjoy flying. I truly did. It was fun to see the country from 30,000 feet, and aviation itself has always fascinated me. Between the restaurants, shopping and the ever-important people-watching, airports were like an amusement park. Long layovers were something to savor.

Flying, it seems, once had a more elegant air. Travelers dressed with intention and behaved themselves. Now, both Walmart attire and disorderly behavior have become acceptable norms.

A few years back, I began to prefer aisle seats over window seats. Looking back, that was the beginning of my change in attitude. I chose to escape claustrophobia and near-intimate contact rather than enjoy the view of the world beyond the oval window.

This past weekend, I took six flights in three days. That becomes a necessity when flying between two non-hubs. One flight would stretch three hours, bookended by shorter one-hour hops, all with knees together and elbows tucked in. The sheer logistics leave little room for romance.

Reflecting on the weekend, it occurred to me that the airline industry could improve the passenger experience by borrowing from sedation dentistry. Rather than suffer dehumanizing waits, being herded like cattle and stuffed into ever-shrinking spaces, just give us some gas and wake us up when we get there.

It was that bad.

There was, however, a silver lining. While on a layover in Atlanta, I ran into a formative figure from my younger life. While studying the airport’s flight information board, I spotted a familiar figure arriving at an adjacent gate with staff in tow.

It was Newt.

Long before today’s increasingly divisive politics, leaders like Newt Gingrich represented a very different political party — one that was colorblind, welcomed diverse opinions and celebrated free enterprise with an infectious positivity. Somewhere around 1988-90, I had the privilege of playing an extra in an instructive video he made for GOPAC, the political action committee that supported the education of GOP candidates. In the video, Gingrich was the star and described the party as an ideological majority, but underrepresented in Congress. A few years later, his efforts came to fruition, and he became Speaker of the House.

As I recall, we spent a couple of days shooting the video, then I spoke with him one-on-one for a few minutes at a party event with the candidate I was working for at the time. That was the sum total of my contact with him, but I have kept him in my sights since. His approach to politics, drawing from his background as a history professor and, in many ways, a futurist, has always offered thoughtful insight into the world of politics. I still read his website regularly today.

With the political pendulum swinging more widely and wildly than ever, it is refreshing to hear the words of an elder statesman who can place current chaos into historic context. At the airport on Friday, I spoke with Gingrich just long enough to remind him of the message he gave in 1988. He seemed to appreciate the memory and thanked me.

That experience turned an otherwise rough day into a pleasant memory. Ultimately, I shouldn’t complain about the state of air travel. We are privileged to live in an era when we can cross the country in a single day, in a way that is safer than ever and relatively affordable. Along the way, we have the opportunity to interact with people of all stripes, with a variety of stories and for that much, we should be thankful.