Educator Parker J. Palmer was en route to a conference when the plane he was on made an unexpectedly long layover at an airport. A truck that was supposed to deliver the refreshments for the next leg of the journey broke down. Finally the pilot decided that it was more important to get his passengers on their way than to wait for the snacks to arrive, so he took off.

As soon as they were in the air the passengers started grumbling. "A ticket is a contract," one said loudly, "and snacks are part of the contract." "I ought to sue," another muttered. A man stood up and said, "I'm a lawyer. How many are willing to join in a class action suit?" A minor mutiny was in the works.

Then something interesting happened. A flight attendant came on the public address system. She began with the familiar information on such flights: "Ladies and gentlemen, the captain has turned off the seatbelt lights. We have now attained a cruising altitude of 30,000 feet." Then she said something quite extraordinary: "Having served many of you on the first leg of this flight, I know some of you still have your bags of peanuts, which you stuffed in your pocket. How many do we have? Five? Please open them and share them with the people around you. I'm sure some of you have mints. Would you pass these around, also? Those of you with newspapers, you can only read one section at a time. Spread the other sections around for others to read. Some of you are parents or grandparents. Take out the pictures of your children or grandchildren and show them to others." With that brief announcement she changed the emotional climate of that flight.

Later, when the flight attendant came near Parker Palmer's seat he asked her, "What's your name? What's the name of your supervisor? I want to write a letter of commendation. That was the best example of group leadership I've ever seen."

And then she said something which surprised Parker. She leaned toward him and whispered, "The loaves and fishes still work."