I saw a dear friend today who travelled to Brazil with her 10-year old son late last summer. One of the stories she told has added a bounce to my step all day:
When they landed and wanted to go through customs, there wasn’t a guard in sight anywhere. So they settled down for a long wait at the airport terminal, and she told her son to play with his football. After maybe 20 minutes or so a man in uniform came round and walked up to her son – and started playing football with him. Everyone else just had to wait to have their passports checked until they were finished. – Do I need to tell you that her son simply loves Brazil?
But I’m also thinking very hard about Germany. Just think what would happen if a ten year-old boy started playing football inside Munich Airport. And what would people standing in line say if the customs officer spent half an hour playing ball instead of checking passports? There’s this phrase in German “irgendwo hört der Spaß auf.” Maybe we have to stretch our tolerance for “Spaß” just a little over here…
