Up, up and away. Oh yeah, this little Peep packed a suitcase, jumped on a plane and headed to Portland, Oregon. A weekend to get away retool, recharge and rejuvenate. A much needed mini vacation.
On the plane laughter was the name of the game. You see, this little Peep was laughing at a movie on the old iPad. What is so noteworthy about that? Well, the laughter came when folks least expected it.
Watching a movie with headphones on, noise cancelling headphones to be exact, is an immersive experience. You can’t hear anyone around you and you can’t really hear yourself. So when you laugh you don’t know how loud you are. People around you are distracted, some are even disturbed by the random laughter.
If the laughter goes on long enough some people start to enjoy the random outbursts. What is so funnythey wonder. With each new outburst they shake their heads. As the laughter continues some decide at least someone is laughing.
I am sure it helps that I have an infectious laugh, almost a child-like laugh. It is a combination of hee hee and ha ha with mirth sprinkled in between. It is a fun laugh that captures the true spirit of laughter.
There are those who complain and gripe because my laughter invaded their solitude. Take for example my seat mate. She was not amused by my laughter. She was not amused by anything about me.
She sat down and immediately took out her journal to chronicle her displeasure. Once that take was done she took out a small, tattered book with tabbed pages. I was curious about the book. My seat mate unconsciously assuaged my curiosity and held the book up in between us, almost like a shield.
Imagine my surprise to see the book/shield was a bible. My seat mate was so disturbed by me that she needed to read her bible held up and in between us to protect herself from little old me. So while I watched my movie, laughed and enjoyed myself my seat mate protected herself with her bible.
Apparently there is no laughter in her bible. She must belong to the religion that forbids laughter along with other sins like women voting I thought. She is part of the group that broke off because laughter was not godly, I thought turning back to my movie. A religion that does not believe in laughter, now that is funny.
To be fair she probably just belongs to a religion that does not believe in anything that affirms my existence. Sitting next to me while I was laughing and enjoying myself challenged her beliefs about the need to suffer. It also challenged her beliefs about my suffering. How can it laughshe must have thought. Doesn’t it know it is doomed?
How do I know this? I might have stolen a look at her journal. Why must I endure thiswas the predominant theme of her ink filled ranting. What must she endureI thought? Was it so bad sitting next to me? Seriously, I was only laughing. My seat mate must have realized I read part of her journal so she closed it up with a mighty slap on the cover, held it closed by her bible, leaned her head on the seat in front of me and began to pray. I went back to laughing at my movie.
Once the plane landed my seat mate tried to escape my side before they turned off the seat belt sign and opened the door. I thought how sad that she spent her flight lamenting her life and being upset that someone, who she saw as less deserving was laughing.
Watching her try to run down the aisle I felt sorry for her.
I could have been upset, I could have felt slighted or even persecuted by her obvious disdain, but I just felt sad for her. I have love and laughter in my life. I don’t spend my time writing in a journal why me? I spend my time laughing out loud and enjoying my life. I don’t spend my time lamenting my life and worrying about what comes next.
As I stepped into the contrail left by my seat mate I did what any Putty Peep would do, I laughed. I did not laugh at her. I laughed for her. I hope someday she can find a way to laugh.