Seat for one, please.

I'm sitting here in the airport in Colorado Springs...heading to California. I'll be there for three days for some meetings with an advertising agency. This will be the longest time I've been away from my beautiful little boy. Leaving this morning was extremely hard. And he was in such a good mood..."talking" up a storm. For some reason, he does this thing where he kinda squints his eyes when he tries talking. It's absolutely adorable. He and I "talked" for nearly half an hour before I left. Man, I'm gonna miss him. As I'm sitting here in the waiting area of the airport, I can't help but notice something interesting about the chair arrangements. This isn't the gate area, where there are just rows of seats...but this is a nice lounging area, with much more comfortable chairs. There's one sofa...the rest of this large area is all single seats...each with a little table between them. As I watch people come and go, I see how the chairs farthest from anyone else are taken first. Only when there are no chairs all by themselves, will someone consider sitting across the little table from a stranger. Isn't that the way we are, as Americans, I mean? We all want our own space. We want to keep to ourselves. I've traveled quite a bit internationally, and you just don't see that in other countries. Total strangers don't think twice about bumping elbows with you in a waiting area...even if lone seats are available. As I've traveled through Europe, I've found myself uncomfortable a few times with that scenario. And it bothers me. Why do we go out of our way to keep from interacting with other human beings? We're not all that way, I realize. I'm traveling today with a co-worker who has never met a stranger. She'll talk to anyone. And even that makes me uncomfortable to be with her, sometimes. I can't help but think, when she starts a conversation, "What if they don't want to talk to you, Krissy?" But she plows right through. And people are always pretty receptive. Maybe there's something to learn there. Anyway, I just thought I'd share this realization with you. I'm going to go sit next to someone I don't know now. If I get extremely brave, I may even say hello. For more information about Tim Glenn, visit timglennmusic.com tim glenn