Travel delays are never fun, but
from time to time they are bound to happen. You can’t expect the weather to
cooperate every time you fly, and better they should repair those mechanical issues
before you fasten your seat belt.
I’ve learned to take a deep breath,
chill, remind myself it’s not the end of the world, and then look for a way to
appreciate whatever extra time I’m now spending in the airport. Reading always
works for me, so does getting in some phone-chat time with girlfriends, or
cleaning out my inbox if all else fails.
But recently, the Broadway cast
members of “The Lion King” and “Aladdin” took appreciating your unanticipated
down-time in an airport to a whole new level. During their six-hour weather
delay in New York’s LaGuardia Airport, they had a sing-off! It was truly an
extraordinary event, captured on someone’s phone, and uploaded to YouTube [https://youtu.be/6ajHZWDP_Vk].
What a choice these cast members
made! Rather than bemoan the hot, crowded conditions of the airport, rather
than complain endlessly about what the delay meant to their plans, or how bored
they were, or anything else, they turned to what they could value in that
moment, they started singing. First one, then another, then the whole cast of
“The Lion King” joined in to sing songs from their award-winning show.
Whereupon the “Aladdin” cast responded with their songs--including an amazing
free-style rap by James Inglehart, who plays the Genie in the show.
Not only did the cast members of
these shows counter the potentially adverse effects of negativity on their
well-being, they uplifted everyone within earshot in that airport! You can see
the smiles on other passengers’ faces as their mood changed from “Oy ve” to
“Hurrah”! Because everyone was in the same weather-delay boat; it took
deliberate, conscious focus to switch from ain’t-it-awful to better thoughts
and feelings. Something the cast members accomplished with ease.
Contrast this with the behavior I witnessed
a few weeks prior at another airport. My flight was mechanical-issue delayed
for three hours, then canceled entirely. We were transferred to a different
flight, which meant another delay of about two hours. OK, such is life.
Finally, we were in line to board our designated aircraft, just waiting for the
previous passengers to get off the plane, and the few minutes required for the
cleaning crew to do their thing.
A man standing at the head of our
line was vigorously complaining to the ground attendant in charge of taking our
boarding passes about how long it was taking the previous passengers to
deplane. How he’d had it with all this waiting, and what a horrible airline
this was, and what horrible service. There was more of course. I stood there,
with my jaw dropped. Here the airline had kept us safe (off a plane not fit to
fly), found us seats on another flight, we were about to board, and the man was
first in line. It was probably one of the finest examples of complete lack of
appreciation I have ever seen. At the very least, the man could have valued his
position at the front of the line, and appreciated the fact that he only had
another ten minutes, tops, to wait before getting to his seat.
I don’t even want to know what that
man’s heart condition is like. What I do know, is that those Broadway cast
members, with their ability to switch their focus to what they could
appreciate, what they could do--sing!--as opposed to what they couldn’t do (get
on a plane right then) had their hearts not only in the right place for the joy
they brought themselves and everyone else in that airport, but also in the very
best place for their long-term health and vitality.
Now don’t you wish
you’d had that travel delay?!
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