Flying to Rio with a character
After arriving in JFK in the most predictable way (rain, snow, traffic or whatever) which is the combo E line + AirTrain, and boarding on a “last call” although I arrived early enough (due to the never-ending security lines, and the abnormal amount of passengers with special needs such as many small children in strollers, large hand-luggage, senior citizens, etc) I finally arrive at my seat on the flight New York – Rio de Janeiro, and I see it is occupied by… Rolls Royce car keys, with a Rolls Royce keyring. How can you have so much money and so little taste at once? Besides, I believe the USA to be one of the few countries where RR owners drive them themselves (now that I think about it, Pedro, my ex-partner at the first company I founded, did it too).
– Excuse me but I believe you drop your keys.
– Oh, yes, thank you very much.
The gentleman in question is young (although I find more and more people “young” nowadays, why would that be?), “preppy” style (blazer, polo, jean, and blue suede moccasins).
Luckily we do not exchange a word for the first few hours of the flight. I do not like talking to strangers, and we do not seem to have much in common, so it is probably better that way.
But after watching “Too big to fail” in my video screen, the man asks me:
– Did you like the movie?
It is not the the type of comment I like to answer to, particularly coming from a stranger. I much rather blog about it. It takes some effort from me to be “politically correct”, succinct without being harsh, or even understand why would someone ask me something like that.
I assume perhaps he is in doubt as in whether to watch it or not, and that`s why he asks. So I decide to reply.
– Well, it is not rubbish, nor a masterpiece. Too narrative, and very little critical. It wastes a great opportunity to establish an ethical or political framework to offer beyond the “anecdotal” evidence or the self-justification of the administrative apparatus. And it shows, once again, that, sadly, history is written by “the winners” and this society gets who it considers “the winners” wrong.
While I ponder whether I made him a favor or my words may have gotten him more confused regarding the movie, he replies something that surprises me.
– Hahaha. “Dad” –he says that looking to the man sitting to his right– does not like the actor that plays him.
After a WTF moment with the corresponding shocked look on my face, I start to think “what is someone like them doing in this plane?”. As if he read my thought (and I would not have thought someone like “Junior” would be capable of such subtlety, although I saw him reading the Economist) he answers before I ask him:
– Our jet does not have the fuel autonomy to get to Rio, and since all that happened (and he looks at the screen in obvious reference to the movie) we are very careful about the bank`s planes use.
I guess my “I am not one of your, nor I like the 0,001% like you with that attitude, buddy” face must have been sufficiently evident, since he did not say another word to me until landing.