New Church Life May/June 2015 | Page 63

Plane Kindness The Rev. Coleman S. Glenn (This article originally appeared in the Peace River New Church Current in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada, and also appeared on NewChurchPerspective.com. It is reprinted with permission.) S ince becoming a pastor, I’ve spent a good deal of time in airplanes and airports. You might expect that spending all that time with tired, overcrowded, hurried individuals, I’d have seen a lot of the worst in people. But I’ve found the opposite to be true. Sure, I’ve run into some grumpy folks in my travels; but I’ve also seen travel bring out the best in people. On one flight there was a passenger who didn’t have the right credit card to pay for her meal, and the airline didn’t take cash. Seeing her trouble, the man next to her (a complete stranger as far as I could tell) handed the flight attendant his credit card instead, and when the woman took out cash to offer the man, he turned it down. Another time, when I was flying with my then-fiancée, Anne, we both had middle seats in different parts of the plane. When the man next to me found out we were engaged and not able to sit together, he gave up his aisle seat for Anne’s middle seat. What is inspiring these people to give up their seats and their money? There was an article a few years ago in Air Canada’s EnRoute magazine explaining the scientific, brain-chemistry reasons why doing acts of kindness for others – even small ones in places like airplanes and airports – makes us feel good and increases our happiness. (http://enroute.aircanada.com/en/ articles/airport-altruism) There’s something about doing something nice for someone else that just feels good. This article pointed out the difference between being in a plane and being in a car. In a car, we can’t see the other people; it is all mechanical interactions. But in a plane, we see people as people. And, for little cost, we can do something personal that will affect another person’s life. It’s a wonderful feeling to know that you’ve brightened a stranger’s day. That ability to see others as people is vital in learning to love the neighbor 283