Monday, July 27, 2009

Travel: Using humor to cope with stress

Last Friday evening I was on the way home using a regional express train from Stuttgart to Friedrichshafen (Germany). I was happy to catch it and make the connection because another train I had been on had been running late. About 45 minutes into the ride our train had to stop in the nowhere and the following announcement came over the PA: "Because of persons on the track, continuation will be delayed for an unknown time." Often "person on the track" means suicide and in the worst case it can take hours to reopen the tracks.

Many people got upset about the situation, but I decided to take the delay with humor, seeing it as positive that at least mobile Internet was working where the train was halted and that I still had some food, water, and battery life left. I was reminded about a "humor and stress" class IBM had payed for me a couple years back. The facilitator was Tim Gard, known for his travel stories and chicken feet. Enjoy.

BTW: The train continued after about 60 min. I made it home safely with my emails done.