It was about a year about 9-11, and I was catching the first flight flight out of a regional airport. I was sitting in an area with several gates, and I was one of several people facing the corridor, probably not fully awake. A brown skinned man came by carrying a duffle bag and sobbing. He was wearing a snug knit hat, which I thought might be a Muslim thing. As is often the case, I seemed to be the only person seeing this. Most people are very good at creating a bubble of privacy around themselves, but I'm more of an observer. Still I was a little embarrassed to be watching his anguish, because he was crying hard.
He started rooting through his duffle, which was about as jumbled as you'd expect. There were several large prescription bottles of medications, including one that looked like it would hold a pint, but it probably held 400 pills. There were also several full bottles of Heinikin, which did not seem like something a strictly religious Muslim would be carrying.
At this point he pulled out a prayer rug, and performed his morning devotions, which did not take long. Still crying, he packed up his stuff and headed down the corridor. I glanced at the people to my left and right, and they were utterly oblivious to what had just happened.
I have to admit that I was a little relieved he wasn't getting on my flight. But I wondered what I should do, if anything. Should I alert security and watch the poor man get beaten into a grease spot? And it certainly could have gone down that way. Remember, this was the period of daily terror alerts and ongoing terror attacks around the world.
I decided to do nothing, because he really hadn't done anything alarming beyond being Muslim and very sad. Ultimately, it was probably his industrial sized pill bottle that convinced he was some lost soul, probably trying to deal with some personal tragedy like making it home for a funeral or something.
No planes crashed that day, and no flights were turned back because of a sobbing Muslim man. I hope he got where he was going. At least I did not add to his troubles.