“Do you see her?” said a little girl. “Not yet. Her flight just got in,” said her father. “It’ll be a few minutes yet.”
“Oh, I can’t wait,” said the girl’s brother, jogging up and down in place. He was holding some sort of sign, but he hadn’t started waving it yet.
A dark-haired man pushing a trolley heaped with luggage and Christmas presents came slowly through the double doors into the arrivals hall at Dulles International Airport, his eyes scanning the crowd of hopeful families and bored limousine drivers holding signs with the names of their expected customers.
Suddenly the man’s face broke into a huge smile, and he put on a burst of speed. A woman who might have been his sister detached herself from the crowd and met him halfway. They threw their arms around each other with such force and elation that many people in the crowd couldn’t help but grin. Such happiness is contagious.
“Oh, there she is!” cried the dad. “Quick, the sign!”
Grinning, the boy raised his placard and waved it. It said “GRANDMA.”
Grandma saw the sign at the same moment as she did her grandchildren, and she too began radiating almost golden rays of gladness at seeing them again.
If you want a taste of the true joy of the Christmas season, you really cannot do better than to take a field trip to an airport. Strolling past the lit beauty of the National Christmas Tree on the Mall is all very Currier & Ives, but for sheer intensity there is no place like an arrivals hall.
We all know this is a busy travel season; we all know that families go to a lot of trouble to get together for Christmas and Hanukkah, that parties abound, and that masses of our countrymen spend much of their free time in December finding and buying gifts. It’s the time of year, and it’s the air we breathe.
Yet amid the tinsel and relentless iterations of “Jingle Bell Rock,” it’s possible to lose track of the fact that people embark on all this seasonal traveling and partying and gift giving because they love each other, and want to make each other happy.
There are gifts we buy and people we visit from obligation, that’s true; but what else lies at the deepest core of family duty, but love? Even if it’s encrusted with guilt or old resentments, even if it’s shriveled from neglect, it is love that brings meaning to this holiday season. And that is true even for those who deny or avoid its theological significance.
Love is what lights up the ugly tiled expanse where passengers arrive at the airport. Love transforms the faces of rumpled and unglamorous travelers, and makes radiant the faces of those waiting to greet them.
Love can also make a lot of noise, judging from the cheers and tears that erupted a moment later when a group of travelers got to Dulles from Guatemala. You should have seen the hugging and kissing, the exclamations and laughter. We’re getting close to Christmas, and the happiness is quite infectious.
Meghan Cox Gurdon’s column appears on Sunday and Thursday. She can be contacted at [email protected].
