Back To Home Page To Archives - Spring of Life - H. Roger Bothwell The Dancing Man There are a lot of people traveling right now before Christmas. Yesterday just within the space of one hour between 8 A.M. and 9 A.M. United Airlines alone had three non-stop flights from San Francisco to Boston. They filled them all. I was on the very full 9 A.M. flight. Every seat, the overheads and every available nock and cranny was filled with people and packages. My seat was situated immediately across from one of the restrooms. For 5 hours it was in continual use. For 5 hours there was a line. At one point a young man entered with a magazine. 5 minutes went by. 10 minutes went by. People waiting in line started to grow anxious. One man in particular actually started dancing about like a small child. He went up and knocked on the door, called inside, and at one point I thought he was going to brake the door in. After 15 minutes the man with the magazine came out. Not surprisingly some unkind things were said. One of the things I found interesting even though the dancing man was not now first in line. Everyone stepped aside and allowed him to go first. I thought it was a marvelous gesture of kindness. Being considerate of others, especially in crowded situations, is so important and definitely makes a difference in one’s environment. I noticed so many people were uptight. Traveling, packages, very close accommodations and a lot of coughing were making people unpleasant. So I decided to try to improve the situation by smiling at everyone in line and saying “Merry Christmas” to lots of them. Now I wish I could tell you I transformed the attitude of 250 anxious travelers. Probably not. But it was nice to see serious looking faces break into smiles and say, “Merry Christmas” back to me. Maybe it did make a little difference. We can brighten the corner where we are. I'm Roger Bothwell and my address is hrb1@tiac.net or 151 Old Farm Rd. Leominster, MA 01453. Thank you for your support of our faith ministry. Past devotionals can be accessed at Archives