“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” — Ferris Bueller, 1986.

“And the folks putting the pedal to the metal hope you don’t even take a peek.” — Craig Hall, 2023.

To put it plainly, you’d be missing a lot. And a lot of it’s good.

I traveled recently to Michigan to golf with the boys. It was a great weekend “up north” as we like to say in the Mitten, especially reconnecting with friends I hadn’t seen in more than five years. So lots of good. There also was golf, which, of course, added some bad. I’d hate to see those same courses all grown in during the summer. But I’d love to go back and try them.

My musings aren’t about golf, though. Rather, this is about my latest travel adventure. I’m pretty sure you expect to read a bunch of complaints — as I’ve seen time and time again on America’s complaint playground known as Facebook, especially given how airlines tend to be in the news lately.
Not so today.

My trip to Michigan was flawless, mostly on time and as pleasant as could be. Heck, I even got seat upgrades at no charge on flights that were packed. And United Airlines flies 737s out of and into Grand Junction, which is pretty cool. The only downer is everyone carries their luggage onboard. But I can find the silver lining there because I can check my carryon for free at the gate and board earlier as well.

I’ll add kudos to everyone on my flights — from the folks volunteering to check the needed number of bags at the gates to orderly behavior and common courtesy during the onboarding and deplaning processes. I recall smiling as a woman said, “Of course I’ll change seats so you and your infant (all babies make us smile) can sit with your family.” I got to help this same woman because she loaded her carryon backward towards my row. I pulled her bag out of the overhead bin and handed it forward with other passengers doing the relay as we deplaned. I even remember letting this same woman and another couple cut in line because they missed the group one call in Detroit. Or maybe I’m observing myself as courteous and polite — much to the shock of local bloggers and those who email me to tell me about how angry and negative I must live my life. Nah, I just think people are pretty chill.

Lastly — and this was where things could have gone sideways — I had maybe 15 minutes between deplaning and initial boarding to catch a connection 30 gates away.

I made it before boarding started only to find out the plane at the gate “could not fly mechanically” — better known down here than up there — and United was waiting on another plane to come in and do a switch out. I was told this by a polite, soft-spoken, gate agent who ended our first chat, after another seat upgrade and my request for assurance there would be a plane, this way. “I’m sorry, that’s all the information I have.” Her demeanor made me comfortable she was, indeed, telling me all she knew.

As I watched our gatekeeper handle passenger after passenger asking the same questions over and over I thought to myself, “This sure looks a lot harder than dropping 900 words on a laptop every other Tuesday.” She did this while staying calm, relaying what United was doing and her printer not working. She even accommodated two passengers who lost their seats because the incoming 737 was a different model than the 737 in which we initially were supposed to fly. She handled it with empathy, poise and a manner that let us know we were gonna get home. Maybe late — and I have an interesting history of that, but this time I had a legitimate excuse.

While all of this was going on, I had another United employee sit down next to me and tell me she was there to greet the incoming plane, “…which would be on the ground in 27 minutes.” So, we HAD a plane. This was after the announcement from the gatekeeper one was coming. Even as all of this was going on, the captain and crew were eating dinner off to the site of the gate and talking to anxious passengers, assuring them things were going to be fine. We even shared a Ron Perlman sighting. But deplaning from Indianapolis?

It’s such an incredible feeling when the world works like this. Yet, it goes unnoticed every day.

We’re at the point our teachers want to dismiss any mention of this system we’ve created which allows it to occur here millions of times more every day than anywhere else on the planet.

We should all take in more of my recent view. It’s out there. It just moves pretty fast.

Ferris had it right. Stop and look around. Life’s all United. For me recently, it was the Airlines. For my life, it’s the States of America.