I was thinking about the nature of civilization this weekend — how
there is a fine line that keeps society from devolving into cruel,
animalistic chaos.

It reminded me of a disgusting incident I saw in a dumpy terminal at JFK
earlier this year. We were returning from Maine, waiting at JFK for the
flight to Raleigh. A family of four sat in the waiting area. The
family appeared to consist of a mother, an infant daughter, a father and
a grandmother. A middle-aged professional lady sat nearby, trying to
read the newspaper.

The baby started wailing. The mother and grandmother tried to quiet the
baby. The father appeared to text someone before wandering off
somewhere. The newspaper-reading lady picked up her bag and moved to a
quieter spot in the waiting area.

This apparently opened the door for the baby’s family to terrorize the
newspaper reader. They got up and moved next to her, wailing baby in
tow. The newspaper lady looked a little confused. After a few minutes
of trying to read the paper, the baby started screaming again, and the
woman moved to another seat. This move had a little bit of an edge.
The newspaper reader was getting angry.

The mother and the grandmother thought this was funny and whispered
something to each other. The grandmother took the crying baby and
started pacing the floor in front of the newspaper reader. The
newspaper reader was becoming exasperated. She looked at me and rolled
her eyes. It was not a dismissive roll. It was a boiling-over eye
roll. The grandmother handed off the now-quiet baby to the mother, who then
took the child back to the stage in front of the newspaper lady. They
loudly “played” — all in an effort to annoy the reader. The mother and
grandmother kept eye contact and shared the laughter and delight that
came with needlessly annoying a human being.

This little comic routine went on for about 15 minutes before the baby’s
family apparently got bored and moved on. The flagrant, disgusting display of how some people get their kicks was
a wonderful reminder of the fragile nature of civilization. Don’t take
it for granted. It exists on one side a fine line.