I’m in the departure lounge at Brussels Airport … looking around.

Almost everyone is intent on their phone – individuals, couples, friends, whole families.

Happily I see some alternatives:

Mom, dad, daughter, son … all eating, and talking to each other!

A young man sleeping on one of the lounge chairs

A 40-something woman sleeping, and looking cozy with a white down jacket tucked under her chin

And another sleeper, female I think.  A blanket covers her head

A young woman holding a magazine in her hands, and reading it

And could that be a meditator way over there?  Or maybe she’s just majorly relaxed, tired, etcetera.

All these lives, ready to lift off to Helsinki.  Actually I’m sitting in the wrong lounge for Munich (Munich-Boston is later).  I must correct that.

I wonder about these lives.  I don’t know any of them.  But when I look towards their eyes, perhaps I’m wrong.  I do know us human beings, in all our variety and commonality.  We ache.  We exult.  We grieve.  We win.  We lose.

Bon voyage, dear explorers of the Earth

Bon voyage, Bruce