Not too long ago, as I was traveling home on a Friday evening, I found myself at an escalator in the Chicago airport. It was one of those long steep ones that takes you down to travel under the tarmac to the next concourse, and I noticed no one was traveling down. As I approached, I realized the situation. There was an elderly woman with a baby strapped to her back. She was dressed in clothes that clearly placed her from another country and seemed frozen in fear as she looked down that long escalator. She may have never been on escalator before.
If I had faced a similar situation years ago, I might have let someone else help. I have since realized that we all need a hand at times to take leap of faith, or in this case ride down about 100 feet under the airport runway. This time was different. I reached out, held her arm and said, “Let’s go.” While she had no understanding of what I said, I must have established a little trust because we rode down together. On the other end, going back up, she got on with ease, and about half way up looked back at me. I gave her a thumbs up and she smiled. While we spoke different languages, we connected that evening.
Maybe we all could do a bit better job, me included, offering a reassuring hand and a smile as we travel these trails. Who knows? The roles might be reversed one evening.
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