I don’t mind talking to seatmates, but my job is a great conversation-stopper. When I tell people I’m in the medical device business, specifically working on a glucose sensor for hospital intensive care units, people’s eyes glaze over. They might say, “Oh, wow, good for you,” and then just look away or feign sleep.
But I did manage to meet my wife on a flight. It was 2001, and I was on a typical four-city business trip. I was flying from Texas to California. It was the end of a long trip and I just wanted to get home. Of course, the pilot came over the loudspeaker saying we were going to be held up for a while.
I wasn’t paying any attention to my seatmates, but I looked over and then realized two lovely women were sitting right next to me. I thought I hit the jackpot and started talking to them. I gave both of them my business card. My now-wife lived in England at the time, and she called me. We wound up meeting in a bunch of cities across the globe, as we could. After two years of constant flying to see each other, we took the plunge and got married. Talking to your seatmates can change your life for the better.
After we married, we lived in San Francisco, but my job was in San Diego. I was commuting like a crazy person. When my wife got pregnant, I knew I had to cut down on traveling so much as her due date approached.
I was on my last trip to San Diego before the pregnancy. I got a call about 11 one night, letting me know that her water broke. I couldn’t get a flight out that night and the one in the morning left too late. I rented a car and got back home in record time. I parked in front of the hospital, ran up to labor and delivery, and 25 minutes later my daughter was born. I got a lot of sympathy from the maternity nurses because of my travel adventure. I’m not sure my wife thought I deserved it.
I grew up in Cincinnati, and I now live in England. I’m used to culture shocks, but one of the biggest shocks was India. It’s just so different, and just so fascinating. It’s one of my favorite places because the people have managed to make order of what could be chaos.
On my first trip there, I had a driver take me from the hotel to the hospital where I was doing some work. The driver’s name was Shiva. His namesake is the Hindu god of destruction. He drove that way. Every day, he would pick me up and pull out into this six-lane road that was jam-packed with speeding traffic, without even looking to see if a car was coming. I was scared out of my mind, but I was never late.
One day traffic was really light, and instead of pulling out, he actually stopped at the stop sign and looked around. I couldn’t understand it. I finally asked why he stopped, instead of doing his usual thing of speeding into traffic without looking. He said if there was no traffic that meant he actually had time to wait, which, if you think about it, makes perfect sense.
By Christopher Jones, as told to Joan Raymond. E-mail: joan.raymond@nytimes.com
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/13/business/a-flight-delay-that-ended-in-marriage.html?partner=rss&emc=rss