I had my toothpaste taken by a security screener at the airport today.
The x ray guy noticed it, and a nice woman searched my bag by hand. First she found the primary toothpaste tube in the toiletry kit. Then she went further and located the tiny, emergency backup toothpaste that I leave in a pocket of my suitcase in case I forget to pack toothpaste. She took that too. I was ready to write those off without a peep. Then she went for the hair styling product.
I said “oh come on, that’s a solid, like the deodorant.”
“No, she said, this is a gel. I have to take it.”
I tried a little humor: “no no, that’s an essential medication for my hair, I get wicked frizzy without it.”
She laughed a little and said something about how “those guys” had been going to blow up a plane or something. She also suggested that I could check my bag and not lose my stuff.
At this point, I decided to level with her: “Look, you know, and I know, that this isn’t about security. This is about rules. It’s about rules that neither of us made, neither of us really likes, but that both of us have to obey. You have to take my toothpaste and my hair gel, and I have to smile about it. It’s not worth it to me to go back through the line, and then wait for my bag at the baggage claim on the other side. The important thing is that we both know what’s really going on, and that we can have a little laugh about it while we wait for the world to become sane again.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, have a good time with these other people.”
I still have no toothpaste. Hopefully there’s some left at the front desk of the hotel. On the other hand, I successfully connected with a fellow human being, rather than an evil baggage screener. Maybe there’s something to this “kindness” stuff.
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