Refusing to feel guilty

On my return flight from San Francisco I was allocated an aisle seat in one of the blocks of three that run down each side of the plane. The other two seats were occupied by a Vietnamese couple with limited English, who had noticed, as had I, that there were two empty seats in the centre block of four nearby. The woman indicated that she wanted to move there, which was fine by me, but once we were airborne they both moved. For a brief moment I felt a bit guilty — well, I know it wasn’t guilt but it kind of felt like it — for the fact that the people in the middle had lost their spare seats and that I suddenly found myself the benficiary of having three seats to myself, when there were people who only had one.

But then I decided that I should just enjoy the windfall.

Of course, I still didn’t sleep fantastically well … but it was nice to be able to lie down. To my fellow passengers, I’m sorry I got lucky but it wasn’t my fault and so I refuse to feel guilty about it.