They say the best cure for anything is laughter, and laughing gets us through all sorts of tough situations and moments in our lives.
This week I went to
Israel; this is my fifth trip to this amazing country. And it is exactly a year
ago I first landed in Ben Gurion Airport for my first visit. Anyone who has
been to Israel will know that to get into the country can be a difficult affair
especially if you have any Middle East stamps in your passport. And being the
well travel person that I am, of course I had a stamp from the Middle East, and
non other than Libya. There was also confusion as I have two British Passports
(for this very same reason) and so they kept me at the airport for 3 hours
until about 4 am when they finally decided that it would be ok to let me into
the country.
Ever since then, each
visit has got better and the time I spend at the immigration booth is shorter,
and on this last visit I actually went through in less than 1 minute! And I
want to attribute this to good humour and laughter! As I approached the
immigration officer she looked at my passport and asked me a couple of routine
questions; what are you doing here? How long for? Is this your first time in
Israel? And what is your name… yes they do ask you that! The fifth question she
looked at me and said “do you have any friends in Israel?” to which I replied
without bating an eyelid “All Israelis are my friends!” Now this answer could go two ways… she
can think that’s not funny and send me to the naughty room like last time and
be there for 3 hours, or think it’s funny and laugh. By the way I did a similar
joke some time ago to an airport security guard as I went through the metal
detector and I biped, he said as he set to search me “do you have anything
sharp on you?” to which I replied with a straight face “nothing, just my sense
of humour!” – He didn’t laugh and gave me a good searching which I even thought
had reach places no one else had! Luckily for me the immigration officer at Tel
Aviv found my remark funny and with a smile on her face she handed over my
passport and said “welcome to Israel” and I was through, in what I believe is
the shortest time yet!
I think that humour
and laughter is a very powerful thing and we don’t do it enough! We take
ourselves way to seriously and this makes out lives harder. This experience
made me observe people this week, I wanted to find out how we behave in public
and how many of us laugh or at least smile when we are travelling or
interacting with others. I often find myself as I read my faceBook and see
funny postings LOL! Yes laughing out loud! And I am sure some people think I am
mad, sitting there by myself LOL!
Often in airports you
see people rushing to get to their plane, so it is hard to interact with others,
but I saw how people react to a smile when you give them one, even if they are
in a rush. Every person I interacted with, whether it was the checking in
person at the counter, the man behind the boarding pass scanner, the lady at
the executive lounge or the person who checks your boarding card before you get
on the plane, all of them see thousands of people every day who don’t smile or
interact with them and so it’s only natural they do the same! So my mission; to
gave them all a smile, a greeting and tried to crack a joke with them.
“Good morning” I said
with a smile to the man who was processing my bags at the security control at 3
am in the morning. His reply was not of my greeting but a serious of scripted
responses he has to do with every person he comes in contact with, “any
liquids, laptops, please take them out”. So I looked at him and again with a
smile I said “shall I jump on the belt to be scanned?” and he looked at me as
if I was mad and said “sorry?” I repeated my statement with a smile and he just
looked at me and said, “have a good flight” I don’t think he meant that but it
was part of his script, his job. What was interesting about this experience is
that I think he is so used to not having a laugh with his customers that he
didn’t know how to react to me. I think a bit of humour would make his job
better and more enjoyable.
But the most
interesting moment this week on my quest to make people laugh was when I was on
the transfer bus from the airport to the airplane at Frankfurt, it seemed we
were being dropped off miles away from the actual terminal, I am sure this was
the longest bus journey of my life. We stood there, I reckon 100 people in a
bus, no one taking to anyone, everyone just looking at their smart phones and
trying to hold onto the rails. I looked around and a man looked at me and
smiled and I thought this is my chance! So I smiled back at him and I said “this
is going to be a long journey back to London on a bus, I thought we were
flying!” and the magic happen, the man laugh and said “Yes, I hope they give us
more than a sandwich” and then a woman standing next to us chucked and said “I
wish I had reserved a seat now” and we all laugh. For a moment we had interacted
and made each other feel better in an unpleasant long journey to the airplane.
It then started a polite conversation, each of us telling something about each
other. We got to the plane, boarded and never saw each other again. That’s ok,
I was not expecting to become the best of “bus” friends, but at least we made
each other laugh!
I think the world
would be a better place if we all took the time to make each other smile. It is
a contagious thing, smiling; try it. If you see someone and smile, most of the
time they can’t help it and smile back at you. It is a normal reaction, it just
happens, I urge you to try it it’s fascinating.
And you know what they
say about smiling?, it take 36 muscles of your face to frown and only 18 to
smile, so it is less hard work to be happy! Try to crack a joke when you can,
and if you think you are not good at telling jokes, buy yourself a book!
Seriously it’s not that hard, try it; there is always a gag waiting to happen.
And if you can’t think of anything then just smile and make that person’s
moment a pleasant one!
To close off this
week’s blog I will share one of my many favourite jokes:
What do you call a
Spanish man when he comes out of hospital?
Manuel!
(if you don’t get it,
try saying Man Well… J) LOL!
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