The waiting area at gate C3 was crowded.

I was waiting to board a flight from Chicago back to Atlanta.  All of the seats in the gate area were full.

People were standing.

Although all of the seats in the gate waiting area were full, they weren’t all full of people. One of every four seats had
luggage sitting in them.

There is one level of courtesy where men give up their seats for women. There is another level where the young give up their
seats for the elderly. There is still another level where the able-bodied would simply rather stand and let the less fit sit.

Then there is the sitting luggage.

I saw luggage sitting comfortably in seats while people stood uncomfortably.

In our rush to get from one place to another, in the cold and often impersonal world outside of our homes, in the personal space that shrinks tighter and tighter around us, we forget common courtesy.

We forget the plight of others.

Perhaps common courtesy…is not so common.

And that’s something you can hang your hat on.