Turn those cell phones and electronic devices off. I heard that on every flight during my recent trip. Flying on a commercial carrier is one of the rare times when people actually cut themselves off from the electronic chains that so control our lives. I found it amusing to watch fellow passengers turning their phones back on just as soon as the wheels of the plane made contact with the ground.
Can you call that an addiction? Or is the image of a chain more fitting?

Last night’s flight from Kansas City to Dallas proved to be especially interesting in the electronic device department. An older gentleman and his wife sitting across from me were obviously wrestling with their cell phone. Finally the man asked the flight attendant if she could figure out how to turn the phone off. She was incredibly kind. She did not make him feel inferior. She joked with both of them, as she turned off that silly contraption that we call a cell phone.

Several things ran through my head as I watched this brief incident unfold. The older couple will never be controlled by electronic devices. I even wondered if their children or grandchildren insisted that they get a cell phone in the first place.
They will enjoy their remaining years unchained from an electronic world to a large degree. That may not be all bad…

As I watched the demeanor of the flight attendant, it occurred to me that sometimes it does not take a lot of extra time or effort to be kind. I have flown enough over the years to see a handful of burned out, impatient flight attendants. This attendant was gracious and compassionate. She treated that little couple as if they were her parents. Those who choose to respect the elderly get high marks in my book.

We landed in Dallas late last night. The wheels of the Boeing 737 barely made contact with that sacred Texas soil before people were nervously grabbing their cell phones. But not everyone followed suit… The elderly couple across the aisle from me seemed pleased to be on the ground, but their phone remained stowed away in a carry-on bag somewhere. They appeared to have no interest in digging that silly contraption out. Someone released them from that chain. I am sure they were thinking: Why would you want to be chained again once you have been released? It makes sense to me. Perhaps there are more lessons to learn from the older generation than we think.