Ladies and gentlemen, I’m pleased to introduce you to the Reverend Gilbert Wright, also known as Mister Magic Experience, one of my fellow passengers this morning on American 1887 from Atlanta to Dallas.
While I walked up to gate T9 at Hartsfield this morning to catch my way-too-early flight there was a big crowd of people waiting for boarding to start. In general they looked like they were asleep standing up, but not Mr. Magic. Some people radiate energy – Minister Wright is one of them. Everybody else within 30 yards was so plain and weary by comparison that they might as well have been wearing gray sweat clothes and staring at their shoes.
We didn’t get to talk a whole lot – just long enough for him to show me pictures of his wife and three boys and to hear his thoughts on seeing to it that his sons had the confidence to find the “king inside themselves” – at least I think I got that right. Also I learned that he has performed as an illusionist for more than a few celebrities. Despite our brief acquaintance he let me take his picture at our gate in Dallas before he had to run off to catch his connecting flight.
Travel is often routine, dull and draining. But not always.
