I’d rather be early than late, even if it means I must spend time waiting. So early Sunday morning we arrived over an hour early for our flight home from Logan.

Usually under these circumstances, I read a book or mark up a manuscript. Unfortunately, the book I brought along was a dud and I didn’t find a suitable replacement during our trip back East. I finished one novel just before I left and haven’t begun the next.

So instead I watched how others waited. 

We were beside a Starbucks so drinking coffee was big. So was eating. A few, like Hank, dozed. 

The clear majority in my section of the airport, however, were focused on an electronic device. Smart phones were the top choice. Next were e-book readers, then laptops. Their eyes rarely left the screens.

A family in front of me each had their own device. Mom had a Kindle on her lap while she fiddled with her cell phone. One son, oh, I guess around 12, had his own Kindle. His younger brother played a video game. Dad tooled with his phone. None of them spoke.

I wonder how this family would have waited without their devices. Would they have played a game of cards, read magazines or books, or maybe talked? Would the boys be interested in what was happening outside the large windows, or would they get bored and horse around? 

I spotted a woman reading a paperback of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard. The book, which contains her observations of nature and life near her home in the Blue Ridge Mountains, won the Pulitzer in 1975. The reader’s head was down. It appeared she was nearing the end.

All to pass the time.