Laugh a little

You Don't Have to Sing, but ...

Had occasion to fly on Southwest Airlines last week. I realized it has been 8-9 years since I've flown Southwest. A few things had changed...I kind of missed the multi-colored plastic reusable boarding passes. But it was still a cattle-car approach to loading the plane and the peanuts were pretty ordinary.

Yet, they did one thing well. They made the awfulness of business travel a bit less awful by having fun. There was just a lot of joking. All the way from the folks at the gate to the flight attendants, to the pilots who wore really goofy looking ties along with their official looking shirts with the thingies on the shoulders.

As one leg of the four-part journey ended, a flight attendant came on and actually sang this ditty to us (to the tune of the "Barney" song):

We love you! You love us!
We're much faster than a bus.
And we hope you've enjoyed our hospitality.
Marry one of us and you'll fly for free!

I know, it looks really stupid there in print on a computer screen. But, I'm telling you, a plane full of otherwise serious adults all laughed and cracked up! She did it in a wonderful way...it lightened the load considerably.

Which got me thinking...in the midst of onerous tasks, why can't we just add some fun? A lot of jobs are just plain tough. So why not make it a bit more bearable with some "play"?? Shoot, travel is hardly a game anymore. It is tough to live through and tough for the folks who staff the planes and airports. Yet, Southwest makes it fun. And it helps.

Not a strong suit for me, yet I see a need to inject more fun. I hope you can do the same.

I hope this is helpful...and maybe a little bit funny.

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