Whenever I get sad, I think about the arrivals and departures gates of any airport. Popular opinion says our society is eaten up with hatred, anger, and senseless acts of politics. But you don’t see those things in an airport.

I am at the Dallas airport right now, Love Field, watching hundreds of people hug, kiss, take selfies, hold hands, smile at each other, give tearful farewells, or carry on with sobbing reunions. You see nearly every emotion in an airport.

Arriving passengers deboard escalators, rejoin with loved ones, shed tears, filling the airport with sounds of joy. Others are departing, about to check their baggage, about to leave for parts unknown, fitting in their final acts of affection before their flight is, ultimately, delayed.

A man hugs a girl who is maybe 12. The girl is squeezing the man so tightly that she has knocked off his glasses and ball cap. But he doesn’t seem to care. He is weeping openly. She is sobbing too. They are laughing through their own tears, which is my favorite emotion.

“The house is going to be so empty now,” the man keeps saying.

“I’ll miss you, Dad.”

An older woman is embracing three of her grandchildren who have just arrived in Dallas. She is on her knees, in the middle of baggage claim. Everyone is smiling. The kids are speaking Spanish as Granny kisses their faces, one at a time.

And although I can’t understand their words, it doesn’t take a linguistic expert to know what they’re saying.

A young mother, holding an infant on her hip, embracing a young man in a combat uniform. They are all crying tears of joy. Except for, of course, the baby, who is gaily picking his nose.

“Don’t ever leave me again,” the young mother is saying to the guy in the uniform.

There is another young man, early 20s, also in army fatigues. Skinny. Baby faced. He is holding his mother and father in a three-person sandwich. The kid is crying slightly, but not enough to draw attention.

“I’ll miss you,” he says through the sniffles.

And they keep replying, “Robby, we are so proud of you.”

A man and his young children are taking selfies with an older woman who is using a wheelchair. The woman is wearing an oxygen canula beneath her nose, wiping what look like joyful tears that fall on her face.

A teenage boy deboards the escalator and is greeted by friends who hold signs that read “BIENVENIDOS Á AMÉRICA, JOEY!” He has a prosthetic leg, and uses a cane. He and his friends are all high-fiving. Hugging aggressively, manfully slapping each other’s backs hard enough to loosen bits of bronchial matter.

And I’m thinking of how general opinion says this country is eating itself from the inside out. They tell us human kindness has dried up. They say we are divided, angry, and disgusted with each other. Maybe we are.

But I just don’t see it. At least not here in Dallas. Not at Love Field.