I'm Leavin' On A Jet Plane...or not...

Ever notice how people just whine and complain so much when the flights are canceled at the airports during a monster snowstorm.  I wonder how many times they consider their one day or two day delay in terms of a historical perspective?

Step back 150 years.  Most people lived and died within 10 miles of where they were born.  A trip to the store on foot or horseback took most of the day in many cases.  You went in the open, not in a dry, heated and enclosed automobile…with your favorite I-Tunes playing.  A trip to somewhere else by wagon, horse or on foot was months of grueling hardship, and a lot of times you died doing it.

We are so spoiled.  We want everything right now, no failures and no delays.  We have no back up plan because we have become dependent on the system.  It’s hard to be wholly sympathetic if you view it in terms of early travelers.  Would you rather sleep on a padded cushion in the airport lounge right next to the bathroom, restaurant and the bar…or would you rather sleep on the frozen prairie with the rocky ground and the bugs and the predators.

What really tickles me are the people who are complaining that the airline isn’t flying in spite of the conditions.  They blame the airline for not figuring out how to fly in spite of mother nature burying them all in snow and ice.  They blame the airlines for not putting them all up in hotels.  Sure it’s all annoying to have to go through, but buck up travelers, be a little tougher.  Those same pioneer genes are in you still, aren’t they???