Between the years of 1982 through June of 1988, I sold datacommunications equipment for a Texas-based company. We were distributors for some companies and reps for dozens of companies -- all of which made equipment for the world of datacommunications.
I had the state of Oklahoma for a territory, and traveled a lot over Oklahoma -- mainly around OKC and Tulsa with some trips to Lawton, Enid, Bartlesville. To keep up on new technology, there was a lot of ongoing 'continuing education', with meetings and seminars in places like Minneapolis, Chicago, Denver, Dallas, Houston. I was a 'suit with briefcases', and flew from place to place as needed when the distances and schedules did not permit driving.
I often spent many hours in airport lounges and hotel rooms, but, with a young family at home, found myself communicating by pay phones in airports with my family in Edmond. It was often lonely work, made a little easier, ultimately, by the invention of shoe-size mobile telephones that filled half a briefcase. That helped somewhat, but one could not talk long distance for long, as it was very expensive.
To while away the time and relax, I began taking along for company, my Bible and the latest Robert Ludlum thriller. I also took a small pallet, and some brushes and other paraphernalia for watercolor painting, and often did small watercolor paintings in the airport lounges and my motel rooms.
On one particular flight, there was a very long delay in getting a connecting flight back to OKC from someplace out of town. It had been a very long week, with not much time for rest or relaxation, and I walked into other men's room at an airport lounge at DFW. I found a clean stall and hung my coat on the back of the door and carefully set my nice leather briefcase on a relatively clean spot on the floor. Then I carefully rolled up my pants so they would not touch the floor when I sat down in the stall. I had some time before they were due to call my flight and I thought I would sit there in the quiet and read while taking care of business. Pretty soon I heard them call for the boarding of my flight, so I got up, put on my suit coat, picked up the brief case and walked over to wash my hands and make sure my hair was combed (yes, I had hair back then -- lots of it!). I dried my hands, picked up my brief case and headed back to the lounge area. There were still a lot of people sitting there, not being in much of a hurry to board.
I was puzzled at how many of the people made eye contact with me, with nice smiles on their faces. That was uncommon. People at the end of a day, on a Friday afternoon are often business travelers and they are sometimes an indifferent, if not slightly unfriendly bunch. When I had left the boarding area, to seek out a men's room, they were a surly bunch. Now their smiles caught me off guard! Some of them were actually grinning at me! I smiled and grinned right back, and got in line to board the aircraft. I had never seen so many happy-looking people in a boarding area. All those smiles gave me a lift!
I boarded the aircraft and stowed my briefcase and coat in the overhead compartment. Only when I had taken my aisle seat in coach and had crossed my leg, did I realize the reason for the uncommon friendliness and huge smiles of the people in the boarding area for my flight. I was sporting 6" cuffs on my pants! I had rolled up my cuffs to keep my clothes clean while in the men's room. Then I had forgotten to roll the cuffs back down and had confidently waltzed into the boarding area with my suit and briefcase...and a pair of huge high waters! Good grief! How utterly embarrassing!
Okay--now everybody on board the flight from Dallas to OKC knew where I had been -- and exactly what I had been doing. Great. Just great. I was mortified. People grinned at me all the way to OKC. Oh yeah, I felt like the businessman extraordinaire all right. Suave? Cool? A regular Dapper Dan? You bet...
Oh well, I told myself as I walked to the parking lot at Will Rogers airport in OKC a little later...at least I gave some weary travelers a good laugh and something to think about besides their sales quotas and the pressures of trying to make a living. All in all, I guess it was all right. I thought a little more about it and then also had a good laugh...at myself!
Since that time, I've learned to not take myself too seriously. I often see others who could do with some 6" high waters to take the edge off their sense of self-importance. It's good medicine to be humbled now and then. In a world where many of us do not want any crack to appear in our facades of who we think we appear to be to the rest of the world, a little humble pie is good for the soul.
They say that within each of us are three distinct individuals...who others think we are, who we think we are, and who we REALLY are. An embarrassing occurrence can shatter the illusions we carry around that contain our perceptions of our individual identities and give us a wholesome reality check...and that's not altogether a bad thing, I think. These days I no longer want to be full of myself...I do, however, want to be full of Christ. Bring on the humility!
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