Down time at DIA ... and thoughts of Tom Hanks

If you spend much time in airports -- or if you followed the ridiculous saga of Balloon Boy and his knucklehead parents with their flying contraption sailing through the skies of Colorado -- you probably know DIA stands for Denver International Airport.

If you watch your share of movies -- excuse me, I guess they're called "Major Motion Pictures" -- you may have seen the Tom Hanks film, "The Terminal." It's the one where he plays a hapless visitor from some Eastern European country and because of a series of complications involving a coup back home and passport issues that prevent his entering the U.S. or returning home, he literally takes up residence at a New York airport.

And, finally, if you've flown anywhere in the U.S. in the past year or two, you're familiar with this scenario: Airline overbooks flight, asks for volunteers to wait for a later flight, enticing them with offers of free airline tickets, cash or hotel stays. Grumpiness ensues.

I bring up these three threads because they all came together on Sunday as I was flying home from Iowa.

I left Cedar Rapids airport, the one nearest Iowa City, on an early morning flight and connected in Denver, where I spent the next six hours waiting for a flight to Portland that took another two hours, meaning that 14 1/2 hours* of my day -- beginning when I awoke at 5 a.m. to when I landed in Portland at 5:30 p.m. -- were spent traveling or preparing for it. (*There were two time zone changes in there as well.)

No, I hadn't scheduled a six-hour layover. I was one of two United passengers who gave up their seat on a late-morning connecting flight in exchange for a free roundtrip ticket. As a result, I had time for breakfast and lunch at DIA and read nearly an entire book. By the time I boarded the mid-afternoon flight to PDX, I was feeling a little like Viktor Navorski, the Tom Hanks character. A little frazzled and more than ready for some in-flight sleep.

While I waited, I marveled at the little universe that DIA has become. With three concourses, passenger carts, moving walkways, multiple food courts, restaurants, coffee shops, newsstands, bookstores, shoe shine stands, massage chairs, jumbo television screens and an ever-changing potpourri of passengers from all parts of the world, it's really a self-contained city. Of course, you can say that about any major airport. But as I sat (and stood and stretched and walked) hour after hour, I began to realize that "The Terminal" might not be so far-fetched. If I had wanted to, I suspect I could have hung out at DIA all day and all night and no one would ever notice.

If you're an introvert, an I am, it's very easy to retreat into your privacy. You can amuse yourself people-watching. Or you can recall small moments ... such as when I sat directly behind Tom Hanks at a parent orientation session at Vassar College, when our daughters were freshmen. Other parents obviously noticed him, too, but respected his space and, like me, didn't do much more than offer a quick handshake and commend him for his acting chops.

Four years later, I saw Hanks again when he returned to Vassar as the commencement speaker for the Class of 2005. As long and rambling as this post is, I strongly suggest taking a few minutes to read or listen to the transcript of his speech. Click here for "The Power of Four." It'll inspire you.