Put a Little Joy in Your Tank

On July 30, customers pulling into the Sunoco station in Halfmoon, New York, encountered an unusual challenge.

A sign inside the store read: “Wanna discount? Show us your best dance moves.”

And the deal was surprisingly generous. Anyone willing to dance received 20 percent off nearly everything the station sold -- including gasoline. The discount lasted all day, excluding only lottery tickets and products containing nicotine or alcohol.

So people danced.

Some offered a few cautious steps. Others apparently decided that 20 percent called for a full performance.

Three regular customers named Bill, Dan, and Denise were especially enthusiastic -- and comfortable enough to let communications manager Paulina Sirtori record them. Set to Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody,” the resulting video captured customers spinning, shuffling, waving their arms, and generally abandoning whatever dignity they had planned to carry into the convenience store that day.

“We told our customers if they wanted a discount they had to dance for it,” the station later posted, “and they did not disappoint.”

Neither did the internet.

Within days, the video had accumulated millions of views across Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram. General manager Nickolas Shafer said plenty of other customers participated as well, although many preferred to keep their performances off camera.

What began as a one-day promotion at an ordinary gas station became a joy-filled gathering that eventually reached millions of people.

“A cheerful heart is good medicine,” Proverbs 17:22 reminds us.

There are plenty of ordinary places ahead of us this week: offices, grocery stores, parking lots, kitchens, shopping malls, gas stations, neighborhoods. Ideally we will each leave a little more joy in them than we found.

And if somebody offers you 20 percent off for dancing? Life is too short to hesitate ... dance!