by Tom Wacaster
In
all of my various travels I have had the opportunity to sit in a number
of terminals waiting for the connecting flight to my next destination.
This includes what we sometimes call “hub” airports. To be more
specific, a “hub” airport is one of those large airports where flights
from various parts of the country merge in order to pick up the longer
flight overseas. Frankfurt, Germany has one of the largest “hub”
airports, if not in fact the largest that I have encountered in my
travels. If you happen to land and disembark your airplane at one end
of the airport in Frankfurt, and your connecting flight is at the
opposite end, you need to allow a good twenty to thirty minutes just to
walk from one end of that airport to the next. On one occasion I had a
connecting flight in Frankfurt on my journey from Chicago to New Deli,
India. There was supposed to be a one hour layover in Frankfurt,
Germany, thus allowing plenty of time to casually maneuver the
concourses to the desired terminal. As it turned out, the flight out of
Chicago was delayed because someone got sick just as we were about to
take off. After returning to the terminal, unloading passenger and
baggage, we were off again, but about 45 minutes behind scheduled
departure. We landed in Frankfurt and were told as we left the plane
that if we ran we should not have any trouble making the flight. So I,
along with about a dozen other passengers wanting to catch the same
flight, sprinted through the maze of people in a dead run only to
arrive at the departure gate just in time to watch them pull the gate
away from the airplane. What we went through for the next couple of
hours is the subject for another article.
Other “hubs” include New York Kennedy airport, Atlanta International, London Heathrow, New Delhi, Bombay, and so forth. This trip that I am now on is my first time to fly into the Minneapolis Saint Paul International airport. While this airport is not as large as many of the international departure points, it appears to be quite adequate to handle the traffic. This was my first stop on my way to Manila. It was about a ten minute walk from my arrival gate to the departure gate where I now sit writing the first part of this week’s article. What struck me about this airport is the elaborate creature comforts in this airport that cater to the multitude of travelers on their way to various parts of the country and/or the world. The corridor from gate D6 to G4 is carpeted with a very comfortable, acoustic carpet that not only absorbs sound, but is actually quite comfortable to walk on. There are various shops that beckon the traveler to stop in and browse (with the aim of getting them to spend their money of course). These are not your Ben Franklin 5 and 10 stores, or cut rate department stores like Walmart or Target. These are high class, high price shops, selling upper line brand name clothes, none of which names I recognized (I guess I just don’t shop in those brand names stores that much). It’s sort of like, “if you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it” type shops. I stopped at one just to see how the prices compare with Goodwill (O.K, maybe how they compare with Sears or Penny’s). One shirt, brand name unknown and quickly forgotten, was priced at $98.00. Who in his right mind would pay $98 for a shirt? There was one shop where you could stop, get a quick back massage and rub down if your muscles happen to be knotted up. For a ten minute rub down you will fork out $45. No waiting line, and guaranteed to send you on your way relaxed and refreshed so you can climb aboard that twelve hour flight to Tokyo and experience cramped seats and crowded conditions so that when you arrive you can spend another 250 Yen to repeat the process. In fact, you could finish up that rub down in time to stop at a local ice cream shop and buy one dip of ice cream for $4.95, or eat lunch at 10:00 A.M. at the cuisine hamburger shop: Hamburger, fries and a coke for $14.95.
Some years back I passed a little shop in some airport (the place I have long since forgotten), and the sign out front of the shop offered a one year waranty on all their products. My immediate thought was, “Ok, if the item I purchase breaks, do I have to catch a plane, return to this “hub” airport, bring the item with me for exchange, just to take advantage of your waranty? Like I said, “Who in his right mind?”
I make it a habit to find my gate early so if there are any changes in my flight, I can take care of that before I find a place to stretch out and read or work on my laptop. When I got to my gate I was surprised to find that the waiting area was nothing like the waiting areas at DFW, or New York, or any other waiting area in the various international airports from which I have departed the United States. This waiting area had “booths” to sit in. At each booth you were provided an I-pad to use, at no charge, a table to set your laptop on, a plug-in to charge your depleted batteries, and free access to the internet. Wow! I have never seen anything like it in any airport. Creature comforts extraordinaire. I don’t know if all of these amenities in this particular airport are provided by the airport, the various airlines, the state or a combination of all three.
Now, I’ve said all this to make a point. I have learned that there is a marked contrast between the way we live in America and the way most folks in other parts of the world live. To be sure, there are “westernized” countries that seek to provide these “creature comforts,” but few measure up to what we have accomplished in our country (unless it be the Arabs in such places as Dubai International Airport). Our Lord told us that a “man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of things he possesseth” (Luke 12:15). There is great danger in the pursuit of material things. The apostle Paul warned, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil: which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Tim. 6:10). Airport amenities, shops, and upscale restaurants are only a sample of the extent to which men will go to enjoy the finer things of life. Tragically, the same effort that is put into providing the comforts for the body is missing when it comes to addressing the needs of the spiritual man. I have never seen a chapel in an international airport; I’m not saying there are none; I’m just saying I have never seen one. I have perused the shelves of the airport book stores and never—I repeat never—seen Bibles, commentaries, tracts, or audio books or DVD’s that address the inner man and matters concerning death and the hereafter from the Biblical standpoint. It may be that airport authorities and/or merchants don’t think it would be good to have material that deals with death and dying in an airport; for obvious reasons. I seldom am able to get the person sitting next to me to discuss spiritual matters, though I have tried on occasions when an English speaking passenger sits next to me on an airplane. I would like to think that more people are interested in their soul than my success rate of evangelism in airports might indicate. Or, it might be that the “many” of which our Lord spoke in Matthew 7:20-21 are less concerned about their soul than they are about their “creature comforts.” And that, beloved, is truly sad.
Other “hubs” include New York Kennedy airport, Atlanta International, London Heathrow, New Delhi, Bombay, and so forth. This trip that I am now on is my first time to fly into the Minneapolis Saint Paul International airport. While this airport is not as large as many of the international departure points, it appears to be quite adequate to handle the traffic. This was my first stop on my way to Manila. It was about a ten minute walk from my arrival gate to the departure gate where I now sit writing the first part of this week’s article. What struck me about this airport is the elaborate creature comforts in this airport that cater to the multitude of travelers on their way to various parts of the country and/or the world. The corridor from gate D6 to G4 is carpeted with a very comfortable, acoustic carpet that not only absorbs sound, but is actually quite comfortable to walk on. There are various shops that beckon the traveler to stop in and browse (with the aim of getting them to spend their money of course). These are not your Ben Franklin 5 and 10 stores, or cut rate department stores like Walmart or Target. These are high class, high price shops, selling upper line brand name clothes, none of which names I recognized (I guess I just don’t shop in those brand names stores that much). It’s sort of like, “if you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it” type shops. I stopped at one just to see how the prices compare with Goodwill (O.K, maybe how they compare with Sears or Penny’s). One shirt, brand name unknown and quickly forgotten, was priced at $98.00. Who in his right mind would pay $98 for a shirt? There was one shop where you could stop, get a quick back massage and rub down if your muscles happen to be knotted up. For a ten minute rub down you will fork out $45. No waiting line, and guaranteed to send you on your way relaxed and refreshed so you can climb aboard that twelve hour flight to Tokyo and experience cramped seats and crowded conditions so that when you arrive you can spend another 250 Yen to repeat the process. In fact, you could finish up that rub down in time to stop at a local ice cream shop and buy one dip of ice cream for $4.95, or eat lunch at 10:00 A.M. at the cuisine hamburger shop: Hamburger, fries and a coke for $14.95.
Some years back I passed a little shop in some airport (the place I have long since forgotten), and the sign out front of the shop offered a one year waranty on all their products. My immediate thought was, “Ok, if the item I purchase breaks, do I have to catch a plane, return to this “hub” airport, bring the item with me for exchange, just to take advantage of your waranty? Like I said, “Who in his right mind?”
I make it a habit to find my gate early so if there are any changes in my flight, I can take care of that before I find a place to stretch out and read or work on my laptop. When I got to my gate I was surprised to find that the waiting area was nothing like the waiting areas at DFW, or New York, or any other waiting area in the various international airports from which I have departed the United States. This waiting area had “booths” to sit in. At each booth you were provided an I-pad to use, at no charge, a table to set your laptop on, a plug-in to charge your depleted batteries, and free access to the internet. Wow! I have never seen anything like it in any airport. Creature comforts extraordinaire. I don’t know if all of these amenities in this particular airport are provided by the airport, the various airlines, the state or a combination of all three.
Now, I’ve said all this to make a point. I have learned that there is a marked contrast between the way we live in America and the way most folks in other parts of the world live. To be sure, there are “westernized” countries that seek to provide these “creature comforts,” but few measure up to what we have accomplished in our country (unless it be the Arabs in such places as Dubai International Airport). Our Lord told us that a “man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of things he possesseth” (Luke 12:15). There is great danger in the pursuit of material things. The apostle Paul warned, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil: which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Tim. 6:10). Airport amenities, shops, and upscale restaurants are only a sample of the extent to which men will go to enjoy the finer things of life. Tragically, the same effort that is put into providing the comforts for the body is missing when it comes to addressing the needs of the spiritual man. I have never seen a chapel in an international airport; I’m not saying there are none; I’m just saying I have never seen one. I have perused the shelves of the airport book stores and never—I repeat never—seen Bibles, commentaries, tracts, or audio books or DVD’s that address the inner man and matters concerning death and the hereafter from the Biblical standpoint. It may be that airport authorities and/or merchants don’t think it would be good to have material that deals with death and dying in an airport; for obvious reasons. I seldom am able to get the person sitting next to me to discuss spiritual matters, though I have tried on occasions when an English speaking passenger sits next to me on an airplane. I would like to think that more people are interested in their soul than my success rate of evangelism in airports might indicate. Or, it might be that the “many” of which our Lord spoke in Matthew 7:20-21 are less concerned about their soul than they are about their “creature comforts.” And that, beloved, is truly sad.