In 2021, I was on my way to Scotland to hike the West Highland Way. The best flight option left New York around 11:00 at night, and seven hours later, landed in Edinburgh. I dreaded night time on the plane, sitting upright and trying to sleep, but calculated the best way to do it and prepared to do so.
I organized my space, pulled the hoodie over my head, stretched the eye mask to immerse in darkness, and inserted ear plugs for silence. I tuned out the world and hoped to sleep. I breathed deeply and went into Zen mode.
Just before the flight took off, there was a tap on my shoulder. A man in airline personnel attire said, "You've been moved to seat 12 A."
It was a big plane and 12 A had to mean first class. I felt like Cinderella. I oh-so-quickly gathered my well placed possessions, and without question followed a strange man. It was a Delta One seat-into-a-bed compartment: pillow, blanket and my own cubicle.
I'm not sure how I lucked out, but that experience elevated my wants for the rest of my life.
Have I ever bought a first class ticket? Twice. Back in the days when they were hundreds of dollars more, not thousands of dollars more.
But a first class ticket, of course, comes with a price.
The first time was when a first class ticket, Boston to Salt Lake City , was less expensive when I had to change my flight.
The second time was foresight on my return flight from an unsettling foreign country. I had finished an all day hike in the Himalayan mountains and could barely walk. My driver couldn't contact me because I didn't have cellular service and I ended up taking a frightening bus ride to the airport late at night. Once at the airport, passengers weren't allowed inside until a few hours before their departing flight, which meant I was stuck outside for hours waiting to pass the guards holding machine guns. By the time I checked in, I could barely walk and the Delta agents offered me a wheel chair to the sky lounge. It was also my first time in a sky lounge. I showered and had a buffet dinner. I had been saved (except when I got locked out of my shower with just a towel...a story for another day).
Now when I fly, every once in a while when the first-class moon aligns with my own mojo, I get upgraded to first class. But I still don't buy first class tickets. Every once in a while I mention to Tony, that now that we're older, we should splurge. This suggestion is like telling him to steal the Mona Lisa.
And yet, when I have bleak thoughts about the futility of life, when I suffer from the you-live-for-a-minute-then-you-die theory of life, it seems silly not to fly first class!!!!!
Alas, the instinct passes, is vetoed, and I accept, and I'm just thankful I get to fly every once in a while to visit the grandkids. That's much better than first class...except, if we can't fly first class, why not live first class? Since first thinking of this concept, I've rethought the idea of first class living. It's much more than a seat at the front of the plane.
This idea has nothing to do with monetary expense.
It includes such things as:
*Respect yourself and your decisions
*Respect others
*Keep your promises--especially to yourself
* Go easy on yourself and push yourself
* Live the Ten Commandments
*Keep your covenants
These are only four ways to live first class and I'm sure there are thousands more.
We don't have to fly first class to live first class!
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