Not Bad Meaning Bad, But Bad Meaning Good

By: Stuart Knight (Founder and CEO) | December 10, 2025

Let me tell you a story about how my entire family got kicked off a flight last week.  It was the first time in my very long history of flying that this has happened to me, but I was glad my children had the experience at such an early age!  At this rate, they should be getting their first stint in jail any day now!  

So, there I was sitting pool side drinking a Corona, watching my kids swim, painfully aware that our trip to the Dominican Republic would be coming to an end in the next few hours.  After giving them multiple reminders of, “We’re leaving in five minutes” I was tipping precariously close to being a dad who can’t tell the time, and finally it was time to go.  However, in the twenty minutes leading up to that point, I found myself wondering why the beer I had been drinking didn’t taste quite right.  Later that day, I would find out it wasn’t the beer, but in fact it was me, and my body's reaction to something completely different.  What that was, I will never truly know, but I can assure you my belly didn’t like it.

What I do know is that there isn’t a person on planet earth reading these words right now who cannot relate to what most, if not all of you, know is coming next.  Two hours post Corona and now virus (get it?), I found myself waiting for what was now a delayed flight, praying that I’d be able to get through four hours above the clouds.  Well, let’s just say I made it as far as the safety announcements, where I needed to blow past two adults blowing fake air into yellow lifevests, ignoring their demands to sit down.  Yes, that might sound rude, but in fairness, and on my behalf, I thought not puking on other passengers was a rather nice gesture.  

Side note: Did you know that if a passenger is in the washroom during the safety announcements that airlines are not allowed to continue, and must wait for that person to get back to their seat?  

Yeah, I didn’t know that either, and found myself learning this fun fact over the plane's intercom, while on my hands and knees in a place no one should be on their hands and knees.  Usually, the only thing I learn in these kinds of moments is what I ate for dinner the night before, but I digress.  The next thing I know I’m receiving an IV drip from a nurse not wearing gloves, and who needed to stab four separate veins in order to make a clean connection.  From there I spent the night acquainting myself with yet another bathroom floor, this time in a hotel, and by late afternoon the next day, we were on a flight home.

As you know, these are the risks we take when we travel, and I’m convinced that we all subconsciously celebrate trips that come to an end without stories like the one I just shared.  However, looking back at this a week later, I find myself feeling reminded of a very important lesson that is so easy to forget.  I wondered to myself, “what if I knew that my seven day vacation would end this way during the actual seven days I was enjoying it?”  What if I knew that within days I would be whining like a baby thinking I might die, while I was having those experiences that made it wonderful to be alive?  How would I experience snorkelling, swimming, playing with my kids, relaxing in the sun, eating new foods, taking in the local history, etc.?  Is it possible that I would be experiencing these things with greater joy, reverence and fulfillment?

I happen to think the answer to that question is yes, and it reminds me of what Viktor Frankl, author of A Man’s Search For Meaning, said about “missing the little things” during his time as a prisoner of Auschwitz.  It wasn’t the big things.  In life, we have so much, and yet we often don’t fully appreciate it because a part of us feels like it will always be there.  Whether it’s our friendships, careers, home, family members or our health, the idea of it not always being the way it is now is difficult to wrap our heads around.  And it’s not until our situation changes that we do.  

Of course I know that I’m not saying something you haven’t already heard a thousand times, said a thousand different ways, but I think this notion is so important that it’s worth saying over and over again.  Nothing is forever, and most often it’s not even for very long.  As you read this, how could you possibly know how much time will pass between now and a very different future?  And even though we do not know whether that future will be better or worse, we do know that it will be different than this very moment.  To me, that is more than enough of a reason to sink a little further into the one you’re currently having.  

Here’s a hard, yet beautiful truth.  A grim guarantee is that something will happen in the future that will make this “now” so much sweeter than the way you are currently experiencing it , and if you allow yourself to see it, I truly believe you’ll be able to finally taste just how sweet it is.

Much love,

Stuart

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