Evangeline Lilly Instagram – The world is a place I no longer recognize. More and more I have the sense that I grew up in some kind of fantasy. A fantasy that I assumed was just reality. But as we have collectively relinquished our culture and lives over to corporations and technology in exchange for convenience, that reality has faded away into the recesses of my memory. Never do I feel this more acutely than when I travel – everything and everyone is reduced to a sequence of numbers. At check in a computer asks us to input numbers to recognize us – nobody to greet you or call you by your name. At TSA we are treated like tagged cattle being herded through inspection to pasture. No smiles, kindness or respect. Within the terminals no staff seem to want to be stopped, talked to, inquired of. They look at an inquirer as if a life-sized sequence of ones and zeros just spoke to them, and then try to move on as quickly as possible. No niceties, etiquette, service. When we travel, we are nothing but a numerical element of everybody’s occupation…and a necessary inconvenience. I used to be a flight attendant. I remember getting to know my passengers, smiling, talking, caring. I went out of my way to make them feel seen, cared for, even loved. I did the same as a hostess and waitress. My job was service. I was always thinking, “how can I make this person’s experience better?” But it was my upbringing and humanity that made me think, “I wonder what is happening in this person’s life and day”, and that inspired me to try to connect to them on some small level. There was always reward in that. When I made an effort, it would inevitably be reciprocated, even if not at first. Connection is what we all crave, and so, in a healthy society, when it’s offered almost everyone will be grateful. (Con’t in comments…) 📸@austinhargrave (as seen in @esquire)