To bin or not to bin

Ok so what is the deal with the overhead bins?  Settle in - this is a long one.

Flight attendant: “ok folks, we have a full flight and we allow you to bring your personal items and roller bags on board but the ONLY way this will work is if you do not put your personal items in the overhead bins – they must go under your seat. This means if you brought a purse, coat, laptop and a roller bag your roller bag goes in so we fit 4 in the bins. Do not, I repeat, do not put your coats, jacket, satchels, laptop bags in the overhead bin – those must go under your seat”.

Announcement #2

Stay with me.  “Ladies and gentlemen, please do not block the overheads with your personal items.  Only after all bags are loaded, then place coats on top of the bags as space allows. This is not a request, this is a requirement. Please do not be offended if we remove your coats and personal items from the overheads to accommodate all the roller bags”.

Announcement #3

“It is essential that you do not block the bins with your coats and personal things; purses, small backpacks, and coats. Roller bags can fit 4 to a bin this way, so we need everyone’s cooperation to make this work. It will not work if you put your small personal items in the bins”.

Ok this seems clear. I normally board early, which by default leaves time to watch others board and wrangle their belongings. I watch a woman shove every last one of her small personal belongings into the bin. I watch another shove her fur coat into the bin. It is beautiful but really, does it need a whole bin? I then watch a couple put their laptops, roller bags, coats, a purse, and a backpack into another single bin. And I am puzzled. Let’s face it. Its not rocket science. Perhaps they are distracted and don’t hear, perhaps they are not English speakers, perhaps they have no awareness of how much bin space is needed for a flight this size, or could it actually be that perhaps they do not care.

I mean the request was repeated three times, in very clear and simple terms. I immediately imagined myself jumping from my seat with impromptu questioning.

“So – madam, what is the reason that you choose to fill up this bin with many small personal items that do indeed fit under your seat or on your lap?  Sir, was there any particular reason you choose to put your small duffle bag in horizontally instead of vertically, which uses up ¾ of this empty bin?  Travelers, why is it you chose to put your coats, purse, and backpack into an empty bin instead of waiting for bags to be loaded there first?"

Really, I must know. Instead, I sat quietly with my coat in my lap and my laptop under my seat and pondered why passengers do not see their contribution to this problem.  Illumination of the greater human struggle with collaboration.

I also applauded in my head – the flight attendant who walked through and pulled out personal items from the bins to accommodate late boarders with roller bags. He respectfully returned those ‘lost’ items to their owners informing them they were to put it under the seat. I couldn’t see the women with the large fur coat but perhaps she was buried somewhere beneath it. He walked and pulled, walked and pulled and I wondered if he felt like he was investigating small crimes as he went. There they were, small personal items cascading down in mass quantities. As he walked along, he adjusted, inspected, and closed up each bin, as if he had checked it for drugs and sticker taped it secure.

A man stealthily rose up to shove his jacket into the bin and quickly sat back down, eyes and gestures pretending he was engrossed in something in his seat all along. And I laughed. The impulse to jump up and say something funny fled through me like a shiver, but then departed. I wrapped my coat around me and adjusted my head to the side in anticipation of sleep that would surely come. I glanced out the window to see the green slimy goo of winter air travel covering my window. Translation: de-iced and ready to roll. This was my last flight of 2010 and as premonitions about the holiday crept in my mind, I realized that I too, was de-iced and ready.

The snowflakes that fell around us before take off were many, and looked sizable against the stark glow of the terminal building. The spotlights shined through it so that it appeared yellow, green, and white, but it was pretty just the same. As I sat there, (bins are still closing mind you), I noticed it is difficult not to soften your mind and your heart as you watch snow fall. Its drifting, calm, clear, silent. My shoulders relaxed, even my eyelids (yes try it). It would be a white Christmas here no doubt. All in all I appreciated this journey, recognition I was not to blame for the bin ‘problem’, the reminder of small things, the appreciation of green goo, and the simplicity of snow falling. Its like yoga in the air.