Gary Indiana

Once Upon a Nightmare...

I was flying in a plane for the first time.

And on this plane there were many

"Plane People."

You know those people, the ones who 

tell you their whole life story?

Or try to convert you to their religion

or offer to buy you a drink?

Well I met one of these people.

He was sitting next to me

 in the back left corner

of the plane and his name was Gary.

Gary the diamond salesman from Florida.

I had just watched The Music Man

so I sang the "Gary Indiana" song to 

him until his name was forever imprinted in my brain.

(The lyrics are quite repetitive, so it didn't take very long)

But, Gary's name and occupation

weren't the only things I learned on that trip.

I also learned that people, no matter

how they act, or how they

talk, or who they've fallen in or out of love with,

or what they wear,

People ARE People.

And Gary understood this.

I know because as I sat on that plane

he treated me, not like a motion sick 19

year old, but like a person.

He was kind and he looked me in the eye

when he spoke to me.

He remembered my name

 and used it.

He offered to switch places so I could 

look out the window so I wouldn't

puke on him.

In essence he applied some
of the concepts in my favorite book,

 "Bonds That Make Us Free."

 The author C. Terry Warner
brilliantly explains how we should treat others.
He explains,

"By seeing others suspiciously, accusingly, or fearfully,

we become suspicious, accusing, or fearful ourselves. 

By no longer seeing them with care, delight, and generosity,
we ourselves cease to be caring, delighted, and generous.

The kind of people we are

 cannot be separated from how we interpret

the world around us.

'Adam is Adam's world,' 

wrote the philosopher Gottfirend Wilhelm Leibniz.

Who we are is how we are in relation to others."

And there we have it.
Gary was kind because he saw
the world in a kind way.
He was delightful because he saw the world
with delight.

I want to be more like Gary.