I was prompted to try to open my eyes to the good passengers, rather than focusing on the jerks. Oh, but it is sooooo much easier to find the jerks. The summer months are an especially difficult time to find the goodness in passengers. I can't tell you how many of our stories begin with: "Just when you think you've seen it all...."

The stifling airplanes, filled to the brim with hot, grouchy people, the thunderstorm delays, the infrequent flyers that are indignant someone took "their" bin space, the ones that claim our seats keep getting smaller and smaller. I want to ask them if it ever occurs to them that they might be getting bigger and bigger? Because I've been down that road of denial. I remember those days in college when I was sure the dryers were shrinking all my clothes.

Regardless of the difficulty, I am determined to find the goodness. Not long ago a female passenger had a mortifying accident (wearing white pants, no less). She scampered back to the lav and stayed in there for a very long time. No doubt doing the best she could to wash them out.

A large man sitting next to her eventually came back to the galley with a T-shirt he had retrieved from his suitcase. He discretely explained that his seat mate needed his shirt. He didn't want it back and he didn't want her to know where it came from. He figured his shirt would easily reach her knees, saving her from the indignity of wearing the stained pants. Talk about thoughtful! His heart went out to her and he sat there and came up with a way to help her.

See? There really are some very good, thoughtful people out there....and maybe just by "keeping my eyes peeled" for them (one of my dad's phrases), I'll be inspired with goodness rather than discouraged by an increasingly self-centered world.