Fear is a helpful reaction to frightening things, like the unknown.

It helps us figure out when to fight and when to flee. Choosing between those two meant life or death for our ancestors. We are, evolutionarily speaking, descendants of those who developed the best judgement in choosing between those two options.

Rarely is “doing nothing” the right choice when facing something that frightens you. Doing nothing is a lot more scary than fighting or fleeing. But often, that’s what people must do. We give “doing nothing” other names. Names like “meetings” or “waiting for visibility” or “budgeting process” or “more research.”

We rarely call “doing nothing” by it’s real name: Waiting.

And without a doubt, Waiting is the scariest place of all.

One of my favorite philosophers, Dr. Suess, once penned a philosophical parable called Oh, the Places You’ll Go, that is worthy of a re-read whenever you realize you’re in the scariest place of all: The Waiting Place.

I hate it, but The Waiting Place seems to be an inevitable part of life’s journey.

How you handle the waiting place is often the difference between survival and being eaten by a saber tooth tiger.

It’s a scary place. I try to avoid it whenever possible.

But when I can’t, I try to find a safe, dry place where I can start carving a big log into a club.

Last week at both Nashville and Chicago-Midway airports, I noticed their newly designated security lines for “families,” “occasional passengers” and “expert passengers.” Experts are those who know all the rules and don’t have to be told to remove their laptops from their carrying-ons or and know all the rules about gels and liquids. (They also are the ones who don’t want flight attendants to sing, but that’s another post.)

Such lines are fine, but yesterday, Southwest (the official airlines of RexBlog) sent me a card that allows me to whisk through security via something called “Fly By Lanes.” According to Southwest, “Fly By Lanes will not have dedicated screening equipment, but they will allow the traveler to reach the screening process more quickly by having access to a separate security lane.”

Here are the airports that will have Fly By Lanes by October 17th:

Dallas Love Field Airport (DAL)
San Francisco International Airport (SFO)
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
Denver International Airport (DEN)
Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)
John Wayne Airport (SNA)
Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI)

Wait. I don’t see Nashville (BNA) on that list. Yet again, my hometown airport is disappointing me. First they don’t offer passenger-loving free wifi like such wonderful Southwest-service airports as Tampa, Fla. and Manchester, NH. And now they are not supporting Southwest Airlines effort to make another experience less of a hassle for the professional traveler.

Bonus link: Recently, Seth Godin shared some random travel thoughts, one of which I’ve had while waiting in a security line (as someone who’s often admired how cleverly designed the queue areas are at Disney theme parks): “What would happen if Imagineers from Disney designed the security line? Why not let them try?