SHAME ON ME

People watching in Houston Hobby airport might not be as exhilarating as people watching at a Marilyn Manson concert, but it was all I had.

Most travelers today seem to have two things in common: they wear frowns as the face uniform of the day, and they wear cell phones surgically attached to their ears.

She was walking toward me down the concourse when I first saw her. For someone in that eclectic mass of humanity to catch my eye was unusual. My eye was caught when I noticed she had no cell phone appendage and, of all things, was smiling! How unlike the general traveling public was she?

She was a big woman, both tall and full figured, in her early 30s. She had a pasty complexion and was wearing a "Diane Keaton" hat over a complete head scarf topping off a moo mooy type dress that took me back to the 60s. I named her Moonbeam. (I didn't have much else to do.)

I know we're not suppose to be judgmental, and hopefully I'm not when I say, "Moonbeam looked silly."

We approached, I judged, we passed. I was then on to checking if there were any others in the airport who could give me a smile. I was returning from the funeral of my cousin who had died of cancer. I could use any smile I could get.

About one-half hour later while sitting at the gate, I looked up and saw Moonbeam waiting in line to check in. She was more interesting than the book I was reading, so book down, eyes up, and I really checked her out. She was with two older people sporting matching faces. They had to be Mamma and Papa Moonbeam. They were engaged in a lively animated conversation that I strangely would have liked to be part of. I noticed Miss Moonbeam had wide-awake eyes and a great smile occupying a lot of real estate on her unusually pale but radiant, round face. Spending more time and suspending judgement, she looked well...fun, but what was with the scarf and the wild clothes? She dressed like she was pleasing herself and didn't care what people like me thought of her. Imagine that.

Broadening my judgmental scope, I checked out her accessories. Over one arm she carried a little straw basket purse, (fitting with her "I gotta be me" dress). One hand clutched a bouquet of wild flowers. The other hand carried the reason I will try for the rest of my life not to judge another human being so quickly --she held a small cloth travel bag, stitched on were the words The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

She didn't look silly now; Moonbeam looked beautiful.


Lesson: Don't judge people on how they act until you know why they act.