{"id":3691,"date":"2012-07-06T14:55:36","date_gmt":"2012-07-06T18:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/?p=3691"},"modified":"2012-07-06T14:55:36","modified_gmt":"2012-07-06T18:55:36","slug":"the-guy-in-the-airport-a-lesson-in-lagniappe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2012\/07\/the-guy-in-the-airport-a-lesson-in-lagniappe.html","title":{"rendered":"the guy in the airport: a lesson in lagniappe ~"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Adam Hurst - Portland International Airport\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/e-ht73YqgjE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I travel to the\u00a0 Portland, Oregon airport a lot. My older son &amp; his wife live in Portland, my younger son in\u00a0 Lake Oswego , and my best friend in Tillamook. It&#8217;s one of the nicer American airports I&#8217;ve been in: clean, full of light (even in the grey rain of Oregon). Great bookstores (Powell&#8217;s, of course), great coffee (Coffee People), nice people. And sometimes, a little bit of <em>lagniappe.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Like the time I saw the Portland Gay Men&#8217;s Chorus. Waiting at my Southwest gate. And humming! Or the time I ran into a colleague from long ago &amp; far away &#8212; more than 20 years ago, 1\/2 way across the continent.<\/p>\n<p>But my favourite is walking in to the Portland terminal, from check-in, to see a young man playing cello. Cello! Not a guitar, or even fiddle. But cello ~ warm breath of an instrument, dark honey in the ear.<\/p>\n<p>I stood mesmerised for minutes, just listening. These days air travel is a royal pain, but the Portland airport is better than most. You can even do real shopping at either Powell&#8217;s or The Real Mother Goose. But that day, I just sat in a happy haze, slightly drunk on cello music. I think I even called someone, to share the serendipity. <a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/239\/2012\/07\/Portland_Oregon_-_White_Stag_sign.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-3910\" title=\"Portland_Oregon_-_White_Stag_sign\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/239\/2012\/07\/Portland_Oregon_-_White_Stag_sign.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"198\" height=\"178\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The whole city is like that &#8212; full of happy accidents that you have to be there for. A new experiment (always successful) at the Farmer&#8217;s Market, in one of the bakery stalls. Beer flights in the hotel lobby, for free. Free hot chocolate samples at the <em>chocolatier<\/em> down the street from the hotel.\u00a0 And always, music.<\/p>\n<p>Lagniappe &#8211; that little bit extra you don&#8217;t expect. I&#8217;m taking that as today&#8217;s lesson in beginner&#8217;s heart. Give more than folks expect, and do it with a grin. Like the guy in the airport, playing his heart out. So gifted ~ and unexpected ~ that the old man also watching began to ghost-fret his own cello, eventually engaging the younger man in an animated conversation about technique, composers, and serendipity. And <em>lagniappe.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I travel to the\u00a0 Portland, Oregon airport a lot. My older son &amp; his wife live in Portland, my younger son in\u00a0 Lake Oswego , and my best friend in Tillamook. It&#8217;s one of the nicer American airports I&#8217;ve been in: clean, full of light (even in the grey rain of Oregon). Great bookstores (Powell&#8217;s,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[354],"tags":[11,1181,1187,262,355,1221],"class_list":["post-3691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oregon","tag-beginners-heart","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddhism","tag-buddhist-blogs","tag-lagniappe","tag-portland"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>the guy in the airport: a lesson in lagniappe ~ - Beginner&#039;s Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I travel to the\u00a0 Portland, Oregon airport a lot. 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Years spent living on the margins - in places with exotic names and food shortages - have left her with a visceral response to folks \u2018without,\u2019 as well as a desire to live her Buddhism in an engaged fashion. She\u2019s a writer and a teacher, the former director of a federal non-profit for teachers who write. She believes that if we talk to each other, we can learn to love each other (but she's still learning how). And she believes in tea. 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