The other day when I flew from France to California I thought I was lucky to have a window seat.
Two men sat by me. They had a ferocious smell about them. I put my scarf up to my nose and decided they must be nervous, or maybe had to run to catch the plane which caused them to sweat? For whatever reason it didn’t matter…they smelled badly and I was glad to have my scarf to put up to my nose.
And as if that wasn’t bad enough they leaned over me to look out the window. After the tenth time that they leaned over me I closed the shutter to the window hoping they would stop it…but it did not stop them. The simply opened the shutter whenever they wanted and looked out.
Since I was flying home to be by my Father’s side who might be dying, I was too sad to be bothered about their behavior. So I pulled my scarf around my face as I didn’t want to see them anymore.
But when those two men started…. (how can I say this properly? Please excuse me as I am going to say it as it was!) farting and not just once, nor twice but at least fifty times or more…AND the farts were terribly smelly, like good farts are AND then they would fan the smelly farts towards me with a magazine. I began to THINK about those farts and not about why I was going home.
I pulled my knees up to my chest, and placed my scarf completely around my head as I thought how was I going to survive the 11 hour flight home?
At that critical moment I thought this is certainly God’s humor teasing me. Two smelly men who have a lack of skill to measure personal space, plus who can fart stronger than a barnyard of sick cattle…The scene seemed perfectly designed to distract me. AND it did!
With that you could say the course of life does have a brilliant design even when it is disguised as something that smells badly.
Note: My Father gave me a weak smile when I told him this story, and then asked me, "Are you going to share this on your blog?"
My Father remains in critical condition, and we remain by his side.
Leave a Reply