If you ever want to feel competent, go to an airport.
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It apparently costs around $700 to take an Uber from Pearson International Airport in Toronto to downtown Ottawa.
It was coming up on 10PM this past Thursday and my flight kept getting delayed. I HAD to be in Ottawa for a keynote I was giving at 9AM the next morning, so I was starting to move into panicky contingency mode.
I was tired. I had just come from Calgary where I gave a keynote on Thursday morning. I briefly considered myself the comedic keynote equivalent to Phil Collins at Live Aid playing both the UK and US concerts in the same day (only people of a certain age [read: ancient] will get that reference).
Uber was expensive and wouldn’t get me to Ottawa earlier than 1:30am. Plus I’d have to spend 4.5 hours in a car with some rando. It could be great or it could be horrible, and I wasn’t keen on rolling the dice.
I checked for rental cars but… there were few available and the thought of driving for hours in my then state of tiredness seemed dangerous and irresponsible.
I checked with the gate agent and she very kindly assured me that the plane would indeed arrive at Pearson soon and would get me to Ottawa post-haste.
She was right. The plane arrived and before I knew it I was whipping down Colonel By Drive in Ottawa in a cab to the hotel.
But all that is just the side story…
The real story is how I watched numerous people… seemingly sentient successful people (ie. they seemed well fed, dressed well and had evident personal hygiene routines)… acting like it was their first day on the planet.
Expressing absolute shock that
there are other people in the world…
that there are rules we all must abide by for own sake…
that they are not the centre of the universe and the sun does not revolve around them…
that flight attendants are just trying to make sure you stay alive and unharmed…
that maybe the person next to them doesn’t really want to experience (in its most sensory sense) their bare feet.
Now, to be fair… the vast majority of people I encountered on my four flights last week were lovely, smart, considerate and downright wonderful.
However, there were a few people that reminded me of some very valuable perspective…
No matter what it is you want to do, there are people out there dumber than you already doing it.
Go. You’ve got this.
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EXTRA NOTES
We’re doing some fun stuff in the UK as of Wednesday, so if you’d like to order anything from PeaceLoveCanada.ca in time for Canada Day, please place your order BEFORE Tuesday, June 14th.
I’ve made a new video celebrating Dads for Fathers Day. I rented the sparkly pants. I’d love it if you watched and passed it around