Put People On Notice

I was sitting in the airport today and thought, “I want to be a pilot...” Except, I don’t want to spend a lot of time in flight school... and I don’t want to spend all of those hours logging in miles flying... and I don’t want to pay all of the fees that go along with getting a license...

Um... I guess when I say “be a pilot,” I mean wear the cool suit and get noticed.

Ever notice how those guys get noticed in an airport? They stride with such confidence across the airport terminal. Everyone turns their head and stares at the cool stripes on their coats as we wonder, “What cool place they’re going today?”

Yep, it would be cool to be a pilot and get noticed.

And then I boarded the plane and started reading another Donald Miller book (this makes two in as many months). In his book, In Search for God Knows What, he writes about a game most of us play in psychology class in High School. The game is called Lifeboat. On the Lifeboat are a group of 10 people, and the group has to decide which two get thrown overboard to the sharks because only 8 can survive.

The “ethical dilemma” is trying to determine who is more worthy of life... which race deserves to survive... which age group... and so on. I bet if a flight crew were on the Lifeboat... they would get the nod to live...

Miller writes, “I get this feeling sometimes that after this world ends... we will wish we had seen everybody as equal, that we had eaten dinner with prostitutes, held them in our arms, opened spare rooms and loved them and learned from them... I didn’t know that cool was just a myth and that one person was just as beautiful and meaningful as another.”

What’s weird is that I noticed that group of pilots from across the room... but I barely noticed the person sitting next to me. My problem is that I want to get noticed by others, and I don’t do enough noticing people who don’t get noticed. Something has to change.

Everyone deserves to be noticed. It doesn’t take much to make someone’s day either. A smile... a nod... a hug... Maybe we don’t think it’s really worth the effort. Think again.

“Nobel Prize-winning Toni Morrison was asked why she had become a great writer, what books she had read, what method she used to structure practice. She laughed and said, ‘Oh, no, that is not why I am a great writer. I am a great writer because when I was a little girl and walked into a room where my father was sitting, his eyes would light up. That is why I am a great writer (Miller).’”

That sounds so simple... and it got me thinking something while I boarded the plane. I wondered if the pilot who was flying the plane received the same kind of encouragement from his dad, like Morrison did when she was a little girl. I decided to poke my head in the cockpit and find out... I slid into the co-pilot seat (because it was open) and started quizzing him about model airplanes and struggling with using all of the parts (I always had some left over). In time, I took over the controls and actually flew he plane -- ok... none of that last part was true, but I’ll bet you noticed!

I think I’ll go buy a pilot suit -- nah, maybe I’ll work harder at noticing the people in my life more.

** Did you get noticed by someone? How did it change your life? Who is the one person you want to notice to help “turn their life around?” Let me know (send an email to jshanselman@gmail.com)!