Well the crazy world out there doesn’t seem to have gotten any less crazy since I last wrote. Pandemic, social upheaval, and panic are still a daily reality. Just ten minutes of watching the evening news has me feeling a little panicked, myself! And while there is plenty going on to be concerned about, to fight for, and to pray over, one of the worst things we could do in the midst of this heavy time is to lose our collective sense of humor. In my humble opinion, it would do us untold good to step back, take a deep breath, and laugh.

And so, not to lessen the seriousness of the problems gripping our world, but in hopes of lightening the heaviness of it, here’s another story to brighten your day. Consider it a gift from our precious teenage daughter who is on the autism spectrum and just sees the world from… ahem… a slightly different perspective than the rest of us.

This story comes from just a few months ago and it’s another memorable moment from an airplane. Because we fly “standby,” and our daughter is now sixteen, we can’t always get seated together. And with our kiddo, that can get…interesting.

On this particular flight, she was seated a few rows behind the nearest family member but had managed reasonably well throughout the long flight to Denver. The kind lady to her left had graciously absorbed an impressive volume of chatter on various esoteric subjects. She had nodded understandingly to detailed conversations about mating moths and even attempted to ask relevant questions about the grisly retelling of the recent raccoon massacre of our chicken flock. “What a saint!” we thought. “Perhaps we’ll actually escape this flight without any flying cans of sprite or meltdowns over a perceived insult from the seatbelt.” (Really. These are not made up examples. We have actually had to pull our girl away from an “offensive seatbelt” that she was NOT GOING TO LEAVE until it was sufficiently punished. And don’t get me started on the topic of drinks on airplanes.) But as I say, we thought that this time we had escaped. “Thanks, kind seat mate! You have no idea what a help you have been!”

But then began the wailing. As the plane headed into its final descent, our darling daughter’s countenance turned on a dime as she abruptly took up a loud, wailing, cry. “I’m so scared! Oh, what am I gonna do?! I’m gonna die!…” The kind passenger immediately began to try to comfort this distressed young woman, but to no avail. “This is the worst day of my life! I’m terrified!!!” The wailing continued, drawing uncomfortable stares and squirms from fellow passengers.

At long last, the woman seemed to have broken through in her efforts to console. The howling ceased and once again the demeanor changed in an instant. Our precious daughter lifted her distraught head from her grieving hands. With seriousness but complete calm, our darling explained that she was not actually upset at all. “I was just playin’ Opossum,” she announced with matter-of-fact composure. Subject closed.

The woman blinked, looked straight ahead, and never said another word. And who could blame her?! This dear girl was just trying various emotions on for size, as if that’s what everyone in their right mind does on crowded airplanes. And basically she had concluded with, “I’m all done with my little experiment now. Thanks so much. Comfort superfluous.”