Dearest Rachel –
This morning was unusually full of errands, honey, so I think I’m going to focus on that for today’s letter. To be honest, I’m just happy to be done with talking about current world events for a while. Yes, those will always be with us, and they color our personal experiences in ways both subtle and obvious, but there’s no need to make them more of the latter than they already are. In truth, they have less bearing on the things we do on a day-to-day basis than some people would have us believe, and we ought to bear that in mind, especially in the win-or-lose atmosphere currently enveloping us here. The thing is, we all still have our routines we are going through, both on a daily basis and for our lifetimes, and the question of who might be in charge of this nation or that won’t change those things we go about doing, whether it’s as simple as going grocery shopping (il faut manger, after all) or as life-changing as getting married.
All of which brings me to the main reason for my morning travels. It so happens that Logan’s cousin, I think, is getting married, and he (and his sister) needed a ride to the airport this morning. And since I’ve gotten more than my fair share of rides to the airport myself from other people, I’m in a position where I need to pass along the benefits I’ve received from others to others.
It’s strange to realize that we receive so many favors in life from other people that we can’t always pay back to those same people (often because they have no need of that particular form of payment themselves, so how do you pay them back?). Sometimes the best way to pay this debt back is by doing a similar favor to someone else, and letting the cycle continue; heck, maybe those who gave to us had been given to in the further past, while those we assist today may go on to do likewise for others in the future.
To be sure, this is an inconsequential thing in the grand scheme of things. Consider all that parents give to their children, without expecting to receive back. Sure, there are things such as filial piety that are ingrained in certain societies, and you can recall having to manage your parents’ decline in your last five years or so (albeit mostly with the money they had already saved up), but it’s not the same thing as they did for us, back in the day. Our true means of paying back what they did for us is by following their example and doing likewise for our own children – and hopefully, they will have learned from us how to do so to their children, and so on and so forth. With that taken into consideration, a trip to the airport is as nothing in comparison – although given that the connection to Logan isn’t anything nearly like that of an actual child, that should be understandable.
In any event, it’s still a case of when you have the means (both in terms of time and resources) to help someone out, you should. After all, others have done so for you; the least you can do is to pass that blessing along.
***
As I said, I have the time to do these sorts of things nowadays. My “boss” is a pushover, after all, and I let the folks know I was going to be late getting into the “office” (to which they reacted with a sort of “so… just like every day these days, right?” and yeah, I couldn’t argue with them), so everyone who might be concerned already knew about my schedule.
What I didn’t know was whether I’d be able to keep up with the rest of my schedule. I’d have to pick Logan and Livy up from their place (he was back “home,” as she wasn’t comfortable spending the night alone in their house, their parents having flown out the day before), and drop them off at the airport by 10:30 for a 12:30 (which, in my mind, is cutting it close, but they have that TSA Fast Pass thing, so… if it works, good on them). That didn’t sound to me like I’d have the time to work out and get breakfast beforehand, but as I was up at around 5:30, I figured I might as well try. They didn’t want me to show up any sooner than 9:45, so that would be ample time to do everything I usually do in a morning before leaving the house.
Well… almost. I was out of the shower and dressed by nine, and decided to grab a little breakfast, since I had fifteen minutes to kill before I should have even thought about leaving the house. However, in what seemed like no time flat, those fifteen minutes had come and gone, and me with more than a few spoonfuls of cereal left to finish off, I rather had to inhale what was left (while trying not to drown myself in a half-centimeter of milk), and dart out the door in order to make sure I was there when they expected me.
And of course, I was there before I was expected. Still, they seemed to be packed and ready to go – they each had but one small suitcase for a three-day weekend, while Logan also had a backpack of stuff, which sounds about right from my perspective – so it’s not as if they were caught off guard by my showing up a few minutes early.
Likewise, the trip there was amazingly clear. It was probably unnecessary to take the expressway, but the spur into the airport is handy in terms of getting to the individual terminals, so I appreciated it, anyway. Between showing up “too soon” and the lack of appreciable traffic on the highway, the two of them had an extra twenty minutes to hang around at the airport than they planned on. Still, better more than less, right?
[As a side note, it crossed my mind about how different the area looks when you’re driving on the expressway in comparison to the surface streets. You don’t see the billboards or the blocky business buildings from the surface, and you don’t see the homes and shops that make up the “real” world that locals actually live in from the highway. I found myself wondering about how much – or rather, how little – of the real cities I’ve seen in my travels, both with and without you, because of the things I’ve seen from the road that don’t really show what life is like for the average Joe, Yusef, Kim or Tarou.]
In any event, I was pulling out of my spot at Terminal Three at about the time they’d asked me to arrive there – I do so hope they give me a good rating for service; I know they’ll be happy with the price. Given that I was out and about, I decided to head up on another expressway to my opticians’ and pick up my new glasses, as they’ve been apparently waiting for me to do so for the majority of the week. It was a bit of a hike, but again, with the light traffic, I got there, got them and got on with my day (including stopping for coffee and a further bite to eat) well before noon. The folks were actually spot on; I think I arrived sooner than I had on at least one other occasion this week.
And so, that was my morning, honey. I doubt the rest of the day is going to be anywhere near as active. Even the group chat, while discussing who’s free to do what, returned back with half of us (including Logan, obviously) out of town for one thing or another. So the evening is going to be rather quiet, which means you’ve heard pretty much everything that’s happening of note already. Thanks for keeping an eye on me, but please continue to do so, and wish me luck. I’m sure I’ll still need it.
Letters to Rachel 