The Kindness of Strangers

We went to Hawaii, to Oahu specifically, from June 22 to June 28.  We had a great time and soaked up the sun that we don't see much of right now in our neck of the woods.  We went to the Honolulu Zoo, Pearl Harbor, the Dole Plantation, took a drive around the island and spent the rest of the time at the resort.  Now we want to go to Maui, but will need to pay off this summer's expenses first!   I want to start adding pictures to the blog but need the expertise of either my techy husband or my teen whose computer skills are way ahead of mine.  I got some superb shots in Hawaii, many just random pictures of the vegetation because it was so beautiful. 

My little one was a trooper on the plane both ways, only getting antsy towards the end of the flight.  She really loves to travel and calls every place we stay our "new house."  She loved the resort and enjoyed smiles from many strangers; but then she is usually the object of attention, in a good way (!), from people when we are out and about.   One little thing that happened that caused me to reflect on the kindness of strangers was at the airport when we were waiting to board the plane for our return flight.   Marisa is 7 so she doesn't qualify for the parents traveling with small children perk of boarding early.   It was taking them a really long time to get through the initial stages of boarding for some reason, and we had already been at the airport for over 2 hours, so we just wanted to go get our seats and struggle to put all our carry-ons in the overhead bins.   While we were standing in line waiting for the go ahead, an airline staff member came by to check on the status.  He was a tall, quiet man with a kind smile.  He looked at Marisa and asked how old she was.  At first when I said 7 he said, "Oh." and stepped back to talk to another staff member.  Then he came back to us and told us to come with him.  He walked us down to the gate, smiling at Marisa the whole time.  When we got to the gate he spoke to the person checking our boarding passes and then he asked me if we would like to move closer to the front of the plane (our 4 seats were in row 40).  I told him we were fine where we were, but thanks anyway.  He told me he had brought us down early because once they started calling for general boarding, there would be a rush, and he wanted to avoid our having to deal with that.  He was a true gentleman.  It made me wonder if he has a personal connection with a person with a disability because he seemed to have such grace about him.  I'm all for treating people with disabilities as much as possible like they are just like everyone else, because in all the most important ways they are; but I don't mind kind strangers giving us a little extra help at times.  It reminds us of the common bond between all people and as I always tell my "typical" teen, there are far more kind people in the world than unkind ones.