Sorry, I'm Texting . . .

A boy and his dog just walked by me. There's a man big coat sitting on a bench across from me. A kid is standing near that pole listening to his headphones and sipping a smoothie. There's a suit just talking to himself, strike that, to the person on the other end of his bluetooth headset. A girl sitting against a concrete wall is scratching her neck while an old geezer stares.

Of course! You guessed it. I'm in the JetBlue terminal at New York's JFK. (Why am I here? Well, it's a surprise, and Mom, if you read this in the next couple of hours ... well, there goes the surprise.)

What a shock! Remember the days when a person in a strange surrounding (like this, an airport terminal full of strangers) would have to actually read a book to keep busy. Or, better yet, speak to the guy sitting next to him. Say hello and make friends with that person who just might be a friend of a friend or something. But, no, not in today's "advanced" day-and-age.

Today, we sit here (probably 60% of the waiting passengers) with our laptops on. The other 40% are divided between their cell phones or mp3 players. The ones who aren't involved there are watching Grey's Anatomy or Family Guy on one of the flat panel televisions hanging from the ceiling. (I, of course, already checked and found out that Grey's was a rerun, otherwise, yes, I would be there too.) It's distressing.

It is distressing, well, and exciting I guess. Sort of exciting because from that first paragraph you thought I could have been talking about Bryant Park. But, from the rest of this, it's clear that it isn't a park. And, even if it was, do you think it would really be any different? We're not in tune with each other anymore as people. We would rather all turn on our electronics and "talk" to someone who isn't even here or play tetris again than actually try to become involved with someone else in the room.

"Of course, Beedow, you're such a hypocrite! You complain about the inhumanity and non-connectedness of this world, and here you are, sitting in the middle of it all."

I agree, o sage master. To combat this, I think fate dealt me a little jab. The woman next to me sneezed. I said, "bless you." She said, "thank you." Just a little humanity, folks, that's all I'm asking.

Tomorrow, how I stoped thinking and wound up not at the airport ninety minutes before my flight. Whoops!