What am I talking about you my ask? If you guessed aliens.... well then I don't know what to say to you.... creeps. No. I happen to be speaking of something a bit less sci-fy and a bit more.. pure. Angels. Regardless of if you believe in God or not, it can't be argued that some people aren't the true incarnation of all things good. These are the people we should aspire to be. They are selfless and caring, truthful and honest, they are all things good and not in the least bit evil. Miracles despite their grandeur or simplicity can be traced back to them. Now for clarification: I am not speaking of the winged angels residing in heaven. I am speaking of the people who go above and beyond what is "normal" when it comes to doing good deeds.
This is the exact thing I saw the last time I flew on an air plane. An act of kindness that only a true human angel would preform. As per usual, we had a very early flight down to Florida. If you are anything like, well, everyone, you would be fairly irritated to be getting on a flight at 7:00 a.m. Now it really isn't all that bad if you are riding in first class though. Big squashy seats, a somewhat decent breakfast, and free drinks. Sounds like a dream, I know. Well unfortunately we didn't have first class seats. Meaning we sat in the ever so wonderful coach seats. Cramped, uncomfortable, loud. Yeah well to sum it all up: no one likes coach. But this is irrelevant to the story at hand.
Once we finally got up in the air and were "permitted to move about the cabin" the pilot came on over the intercom announcing that we had an Iraqi soldier on the plane with us and that it would be much appreciated if, when we landed, we allowed him off the plane first. He was going back to his station in a few weeks and it would be great if he could enjoy as much of his vacation as possible. This set the plane-goers in a bit of a clapping frenzy that I politely joined in.
This man was an angel in my mind. He gives up everything, puts his life on the line, all for the safety of complete strangers, people he will never know. Yet still he fights to protect us. Selflessness is a very strong, primary characteristic that all angels posses and he is the pure embodiment of it. I cannot truthfully say that I support the war. I simply don't believe in it. But seeing as I am completely uneducated when it comes down to anything regarding warfare, I am in absolutely no place to be saying what should or should not be going on over seas.
But this was just the beginning of an inspiring plane ride. We were blessed to have another angel among us. Sadly I didn't have the mind to write down his name so, for the sake of this post, we shall call him our John Doe. John Doe was a wealthy business man on his way down to a work conference in Florida. How do I know this? I don't. But I did infer it. John was riding in first class, signifying a slight amount of wealth. Now this isn't enough to prove he was a wealthy nor that he was a business man but something else did. His suit. Let's face it; planes are uncomfortable, they are always either two hot, or too cold and no normal person wears a suit on one. Face it, what you wear is fairly symbolic of your line of work. Target workers wear red shirts and khakis, business men wear suits. And NOTHING, I mean nothing says "I'm wealthy" the way Armani does. Don't ask how I know it was Armani... just don't, but I'd bet my life that it was.
So Mr. John would be the last person you would expect to be an angel, but he was. After the pilot's little announcement and the clapping died down, we get word that Mr. Armani (John Doe) wanted to swap seats with the soldier. Now what's so major about that? You may be asking. To answer that question I will refer you to paragraph 3 of this post. And not only was the soldier in coach, no, he was in the very back of the plane. With the screaming children, the *ahem* larger people who don't fit in the seat properly, yet Mr. John wanted to trade anyways.
This is an angel to me. A person who is so selfless that they will give up anything, regardless of how petty, for the bettering of the lives of strangers. I don't know if this fits the bill to be called a miracle but I do know that it is people like Mr. John and the soldier who make miracles happen. They are angels and they are the ones who we should all aspire to be. If only everyone in our society acted like this, could you just imagine how beautiful the world would be then?
So go. Be a miracle. It doesn't matter how major or how minor your actions are because whether you know it or not, someone will see it, and they will be inspired in the way I have. Do good deeds and be happy to help a stranger. Be an angel and recognize the unrecognized, for it only takes a second glance to see that they truly do walk among us.
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