Observed While Traveling...

Last week, I flew from the Pittsburgh airport to the Chicago airport and then finally to the Philadelphia airport. I had long waits at every stop. This allowed for quite a bit of people watching.

While sitting in Chicago at the gate, I noticed a group of young men. They appeared to be college-age. They dressed the part of college students with hoodies, jeans and a relaxed way about them. They were all talking and laughing. It seemed a nice enough group. They never got loud our disrespectful. They were standing next to the moving sidewalk.

One of the group was holding an empty soda bottle. He was tapping it and flipping it in a casual manner, almost as if he were considering a hacky-sack move with it. As he passed it from hand to hand, he lost his grip and the water bottle fell. Because of where he was standing, it fell onto the moving sidewalk.

Can you picture this? He is standing next to the moving sidewalk, which has fairly high, solid glass railings. His group all looked at him and I could hear laughs. Someone said, “That’s okay.” And that was the end of it.

No one went after the bottle. I watched it make its way down to the end where it seemed to spin and flip at the edge of the floor. Because the sidewalk kept moving, the bottle kept flipping. In my mind, I imagined that someone was going to end up tripping on it or slipping in their attempt to dismount the moving sidewalk.

Then I looked back at the group. Still, no one made a move to go for the bottle. I could see by their body language that his friends were expecting him to go pick it up. But he didn’t. He looked at it and laughed.

The mom/teacher in me was so tempted to go get it and give it back to him. Honestly, I now wish I had. Unfortunately, my hands were quite over-filled and I was sitting in an area that did not allow me easy movement.

At that point, I began to imagine what I would like to say to the young man. Then this thought  popped into my head:

“I feel incredibly bad for your girlfriend, for how selfish you are.”

He could not be bothered.

This was not outside where trash often litters the streets.  This was not a restaurant where people are constantly picking up after others. This was not his dorm where it is okay to leave junk lying around. And this was not his home where, I am going to guess, someone picks up after him.

This was in an airport. AN AIRPORT!

I am still thinking about that young man. I judged him quite harshly based solely on his one moment of inaction. But I have a feeling I did not mis-judge him.  

So, what should I have done??? And, what would you do?