Up in the Air....

I nearly missed the flight that morning. Perhaps due to staying late, packing all the stuff and leaving behind anything less useful...Want to travel light. That morning, when I woke up late at 10:30, the panic attack struck me... just frozen don't know what to do first. I want to do everything as fast as possible, ended up nothing done. My heart beating fast and I running around here and there... Luckily, I have packed most of thing earlier. My experience told me, if you ever been hit by panic attack, just relaxed, take deep breath, Istighfar and cool shower...You'll gradually get hold of yourself. And when you don't feel sure you have packed everything and felt something missing... you did leave something. My tiny mobile simcard become Athens permanent resident....Parakalo

I was relieved, I had plenty of time when I reached Eleftherios Venizelos, Athens International Airport. Bought some last minute inexpensive souvenir....

The flight would take about three hours to Doha then another 12 hour to KLIA. Killing the time in between, I open the entertainment display and started playing Sudoku... till I reached level that I couldn't complete... and the touch display was quite irritating...too many people playing with Sudoku probably...

Went through the movie list that was not so latest.... I try "Up in the Air" probably because it's played by George Clooney...Most of you I guessed have watched this movie before and know the story all about... For me, it's the right choice of movie during that moment, even though the headphone does not work very well and jet engine sound most of the time, just overwhelmed the dialog..

A story about Ryan, a professional living his life in suitcase and laptop, flying across US and spend most of his time on air....his job with a resource consultancy company is basically to fire people out of job and deliver the separation package... this movies most likely portraying the current economic situation and job uncertainty in US... You can be working for 10-20 years, hardworking, loyal, productive during your productive age, never commit any misconduct,.. but when the management decide to lay off due low turnover of whatever reason... they will do it, with the shortest notice and hiring consultancy company to convey the execution decree, with professional way of course...

Ryan job in dealing with the peoples the company gonna lay off require him to be calm, professional, in control, empathetic and compassionate... And the two last skills, he need to do it skillfully false...Basically he's interest is only his jet-setter lifestyle, single, non-commitment and air travel mileage prize...And when a young executive try introducing on-line video conferencing method in doing the job, Ryan felt his lifestyle will be threatened...no more air travel mileage and luxury hotel life....So he decide to coach and train the young executive, Natalie, on how things was done in real world.. I don't want to elaborate further.. you can catch up on wiki or just watch the movie...

When we do thing or say thing with false compassion and fake empathetic..... then wait when then will come a time, for retribution to teach you a lesson....

And sadly for Ryan, he has to compassion himself when he found out that the lady he's meeting all this while, is someone not too far different from himself, in term of falsify the perception of others feeling....what goes around will come around...

and after that, Ryan becoming a better man,..less selfish, give thing he want the most to people who really deserved, write good recommendation for his colleague... and still up in the air, but probably with different perspective...

As said earlier, this movies is about the current job uncertainty in US..... and probably want to shed some positive light and enlighten the spectator, so we can better understand and show genuine empathy to anyone who has been unfortunately taken back from their livelihood....

I really don't like the dialog "I am sorry to inform you that your current position is no longer available in this company..."

I prefer (taken from wiki)

"Tonight most people will be welcomed home by jumping dogs & squealing kids. Their spouses will ask about their day. Tonight they'll sleep. The stars will wield forth from their daytime hiding places, and one of those lights, slightly brighter than the rest, will be my wingtip passing over."