An act of great kindness
I’ve been thinking the last few days that I now need to write a post called, “Why I hate bad weather,” since the fun of the snow wore off long, long ago. As Seattle continues to labor under this, um, [bleep] weather, I realized that it’s the thing you don’t think of that gets you into trouble.
My partner and I were rushing to get out of town yesterday, and we made it, but we didn’t think about the possibility that nearly every automobile in the Seattle metro area would be parked at or near the airport. We found ourselves frantically rushing up and down International Boulevard, up and down the airport ramp, finding no place to park as the minutes ticked away. 11:45, no luck. 11:55, no luck. (The flight: 12:35!)
Finally we arrived at Jet Hotel and Parking, where the parking attendant told us, “We’re not taking any more.” I think we went somewhere else and came back–it’s hard to remember, it was all such a blur of fury and haste–but we finally ended up back at Jet, stopped the car, and asked the attendant (sounding pretty pathetic), “Do you have any recommendations for where we can park?”
The attendant put his gloved hands on our car, paused, and said, “Well, just let these two cars get out, and I can take you.”
Overwhelmed with relief, we tipped him handsomely, parked our car, and just made our flight. It wasn’t too easy for this guy to take care of us. His lot was very full, snow and slush lay everywhere, it was pretty cold, it was taking forever for the other cars to get out, and besides, it was our fault for not planning ahead well enough, not anticipating that the airport would be a mess on this day. But he had mercy on us.
So, parking attendant, whoever you are, thank you! I’m telling your story because it is behavior like this that makes life worth living. It was a relationship–a relationship that I admit lasted only a few minutes–but a relationship nonetheless, and in that relationship, for the time we had it, kindness was shown. The world, even in the middle of the disaster site that is today’s Seatac Airport, shone a little bit brighter.
Happy New Year!
