My relaxed and loving attitude motivates others to be kind and patient.

At a gate desk during a four-hour delay, the tone is set by whoever gets there first. If the opening passenger shouts, the next six arrive already braced.

If the first one says something decent to the agent — who has been absorbing this since six in the morning and cancelled nothing — the temperature drops a little for everybody behind.

You don't get to know which one you were. That's the awkward part: the effect is real and completely unverifiable, and the only portion of it you control is your own two minutes at the counter.