Social Experiment

As most of you know, we took a vacation to visit my parents in south Texas this last week. On our return home, we had a layover in Houston. The weather was horrible, some predicting a hurricane. After being delayed on the runway in McAllen, TX for about 2 1/2 hours, we finally flew to Houston. Planes were backed up and many flights cancelled from every airline. The airport was completely inundated with travellers, most unhappy with their circumstance. Bottom line, we were supposed to land at 2:30 PM and finally landed at 11:00 PM. Ever spend 9 hours in an airport with 3 little kids?

While we were there, I decided to try something that I had read about a few weeks ago. I was reading an article concerning the psyche of man. In it, the author stated that everyone wants to be friendly and nice. The piece also interviewed another sociologist who believed that not everyone was created that way. "Our makeup is unique as our fingerprints," he said,"Some maintain the capacity to be nice and others do not have it in them." I immediately disagreed with the sociologist and opted to embark on my own experiment.

During the day at the airport, we had to eat, buy snacks, magazines, deal with the customer service counter, the gate workers. Our bags didn't arrive with our plane, so we had to engage the baggage claim attendants. To be honest, normally my patience wears thin after a long unexpected day like Monday, but I was on a mission.

Most of the time each of the individuals started the exchange with a somewhat sour,"Can I help you?" Each encounter I had started with me replying,"I'll bet you have had a long tough day, haven't you?" Nearly every time, that response illicited a beleagured and reticent smile. Not once did someone snap back at me or respond that time was critical and the line was long. Each and every encounter wound up incredibly pleasant. I heard a few stories of rude fliers, tough supervisors, and sore feet. The end result, you might say, was that I got incredible service from people who might not be normally very friendly. Though that was true in every situation, that was not the end result.

The result was that the sociologist who claimed that not all people are nice, in my experiment, was false. God made each one of us. We know that each of us has inherent God-like qualities. We can love, forgive, show mercy, sacrifice and show faith. I hope God used me to make a small impact on some of these tired workers that day. However, the bigger impact was on me. I learned that through trying situations, a little compassion and faith in others goes a long way. I had a commander in the Army tell me once that no one wakes up in the morning determined to screw something up. What he meant was to be compassionate and show mercy. I don't always remember that, but after Monday, and the unexpected responses I received every time, I oray I will show more of those qualities every day.