Board Thisflight

Is that a typo?

Listen, I am not saying that one day you won't open one of my books and there could be a typo. I look at the books I write over and over again and something might fall through.

But.. is it a typo? Sometimes not. This is actually a nod to a person I met when I was young and he used this phrase and I wanted to include it into my book. So If you are interested… Here is the story of George and The Pineapple.

When I was in high school I had a PT job at this store called The Pineapple in Old Town Alexandria. I worked in a department with an older man named George. He was someone who inspired me in life and I am not even sure he knew it. He was always working on his book and smoking cigars in this little stock area. He lived in his car and I never asked why. He was a little gruff but once you got to know him he was so kind and full of knowledge. I loved working with him. He had gray hair but at that age everyone was old to me. He could have been anywhere from 40-60 yrs of age, he had lived some life.

He was always getting in trouble for working on his book, but I was his look out. He took the counter and I roamed the floor of the small department we worked in. He shared his love of books and writing while he listen to “ All Things Considered “ On NPR radio.

When I was getting ready to leave the Pineapple and move on to a different job, George left me with some kind words. He encouraged me to write everyday even if I never shared it. He told me that writers were brave and weak all in the same moments. Then he told me a phrase he lived by and shared with me.

In my life, like his I would have a moment with myself. A release. I would know it when it happened. It had nothing to do with having children or getting married or even buying a car. It had to do with me. It would be the moment when I would see myself and everything would be clear to me. Who I was, what I stood for and what I was willing to fight for. Total acceptance of my personal vision. Not what I was told but what I lived. To Board This flight: meant to him to get on board with the pressures of the world.

But To Board Thisflight, was yours. Your flight, your way. Not everyone gets it, sees it, or even embraces it. If I found this moment he highly recommended that I Board Thisflight and float with it. I never really understood it but many years later I was on a dance floor and in this moment I was surrounded by so many people and in a moment I felt it, everything and everyone disappeared.

For the first time in my life I knew who I was and it was a life changing moment. I felt free of all the hard stuff in my life that almost knocked the wind out of me. So I floated into that moment and I remembered George.

I did it. I boarded Thisflight and never looked back.