Sunday morning flyers pass through security at Hopkins. Seasoned vets of the new order, they know the drill. Working down from head to toe, they wordlessly pile their personal contraband in government issue bins, convey their beltless abdomens and shoeless feet through the lie detector portal, look to the authority figure to confirm their innocence. Over to the side a longer line of travelers than this would be duly impressed by a glassed in display case of sharp and shiny objects fanned out on purple velvet like drumsticks at the Rock Hall. There is seemingly no end to the cutting tools foolish travelers try to smuggle past the experts. By now the gaggle of passengers is buckling belts, zipping up computers, shouldering packs and striding toward the ever more secure aircraft of the USA.
The scene reminds me vaguely of the gym where strangers strip and stow their identities in lockers, throw their anonymous bodies in the pool and shower, duplicate the process in reverse to rejoin the working world. It's a ritual enacted with a higher good in mind. Committed swimmers believe in this good.
There's a scene in Jarhead where marines in Gulf War I follow orders to play football in the scorching dessert dressed in full chemo regalia to impress the visiting press corps. The marines do their duty, as the veterans of air travel and the denizens of fitness do theirs. It's sacrifice for the cause, whatever that cause might be.
There are degrees of freedom and elements of faith. Workout is good for the body. Science and a million glossy magazines confirm this. Get the body to the gym and make it fit. The price we pay for health (and did we mention beauty?).
Airport security is good for the nation. 9/11 and a rainbow of homeland alerts support that, right? Appreciate the need, ignore the hassle, the price we pay for peace of mind.
US military is good for the world. The soldier is our last best defense against senseless evil. Isn't history a billboard for the necessity of war? If you answer yes, your faith requires obedience to rituals of combat (not to mention PR). And if you answer no, or maybe not, or what if? -- you divorce yourself from the inevitability of misery. Once you do this, you are responsible for your own thought. Which, liberating as it may feel, is enormously expensive.
The price we pay for freedom.
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