Work Journals - "Who put cheese on the table?"
The changing face of business class - young, entrepreneurs?
Reeboks, jeans, t-shirts, mostly male and some female, these were some of the commonplace sightings of fellow business class colleagues on a recent business trip. Digital natives with giant headphones, nodding of heads and silent tapping of feet to music jams from smartphones and ipads.
A shift from the conventional business class crowds of middle aged or forever young 50-somethings and celebrities. According to an article in TIME.com (W. Johnson, 2019) on the disparities in first class travel, the author says "so perhaps the airplane really is just a microcosm of the corporate boardroom".
Just as the air hostess demonstrates the air safety precautions in case of an emergency, one wonders what kinds of risks the cross-legged guy to the left has to take on a daily basis or the guy sitting right behind him. Are they perhaps entrepreneurs, living with a potential risk of diving in the deep end every single day, staying afloat or soaring to higher heights?
Would they be wanting to strike up a conversation or are they defined by stereotypical observations of being "deep-thinkers" and needing lots of space, further reinforced by the artificial boundaries set by the ample leg room of the seats?
As the airplane takes off and soars to higher heights, leaving brown fields and green lawns in the far distance, sunlight streaming in through the oval windows, it brings to mind the learnings of the human reaction to change - flight or fight? Could it be that both human reactions are not an end to themselves? According to hospitalitynet of US travellers "one in two (55%) travellers think the best thing about travel is getting out of their comfort zone" (Access, 2018).
There is a time to fight the status quo and a time to decide whether it's time to try something new, take on a new responsibility or change one's way of thinking to allow for a greater expansion of the mind and heart.
As white capped mountains stretch to the far right with lightly hanging clouds across the blue horizon, a mirror image is created of the vast capacity of the human mind to stretch itself beyond boundaries and to reach out to possibilities in the not too distant future.
Say it with Jachory,
;-) Susie