I am dedicating this article to all primary school teachers (elementary, middle and high schools), with special recognition to my daughter’s junior high band director, Mr. Joshua Wine. I hope to include a picture of him with Christmas lights in his beard at a Band Camp, where he was one of the guest conductors/instructors. He adorned his beard ornaments at the urging of his students in front of perhaps a thousand strangers in the name of spirit, making it fun for our junior high band students. He exemplifies the subject of this article, and that helps make going to school fun and enjoyable for our junior high students. Many even look forward to getting up extra early each morning in order to participate in Jazz Band! Anyone who can get early teens to voluntarily get out of bed early, has a special gift, and we should all take notice.

Our teachers at all levels go to great lengths to make learning fun to tap into the natural spirit of children, teens and young adults. And, they should be commended for that. The reality, however, is that spirit is not just in the domain of children, teens and young adults. Spirit is an important part of people of all ages. Unfortunately, spirit begins to get suppressed a bit when we become adults, by responsibilities and, in some situations, by other adults. I pick on Southwest Airlines, sometimes, but one thing that Herb Kelleher, the founder of Southwest Airlines got right, was that he encouraged his employees to have and express their spirit. He hired people with spirit. They integrated that into their hiring procedures. And, expressing spirit is encouraged. To this day, it is not uncommon to get serenaded by the flight attendants on a Southwest Airlines flight.

You know, often when we have found indigenous tribes isolated from the modern world, deep in the jungles in some unexplored part of our planet, we find them to be especially happy and playful, in other words, very spirited. So, a playful spirit is actually a natural, God-given part of being a human being.

I want to encourage all people to make a concerted, intentional effort to make spirit part of your life. Be spirited. Intentionally, make spirit part of your work environment. We beat each other down for a lot of things, and I don’t like it. But, I would not mind us beating up people, metaphorically, who destroy people’s spirit. We need to bring spirit back to the forefront in our society, into our work environments, into our homes and throughout our lives.

We Got Spirit, Yes We Do, We Got Spirit, How Bout You?