I got the TSA pat down

Never Done: I got the TSA pat down

Well, sort of. It was done by German security people in Germany, but flying to JFK on Delta -- so I am not sure under whose authority it happened, but I did get patted down for the first time. This is the third time I flew this year (Oregon and Florida) and all those times I was going to choose the pat down so I wouldn't be irradiated by the scanner (or exposed to strangers in a room) and I figured I would blog about it, but so far I haven't even encountered the scanner at all.

Kathleen and I couldn't figure out why the line to even get into the security area was so slow, and it turned out that the line was just for people on our flight, and that there was just one metal detector and one baggage scanner. And, that every single person who went through the line were being patted down, and that random people were being pulled out of the line and taken into a special room to have their electronics swabbed for explosives.

So. When we finally got to the line, Kathleen went first, and I watched her get patted down, and I saw her chatting with the agent, and I saw that she had to un-do her belt, but mostly I looked carefully to see if I thought it would be at all emotionally uncomfortable to get patted down. I didn't think it would -- I thought it would be like going to the doctor, only quicker and fully clothed. The thing that was actually uncomfortable was that I had to send my passport through the baggage scanner, while they made me wait quite a while to go through the metal detector, and so I was separated from my passport (and computer) for about 5 minutes. And then they called me, and I went through, and the blond agent asked me to put out my arms for a pat-down. I decided to practice Mussar, and to consider what is her burden. What's her job like to touch people all over, all day long? Is it actually uncomfortable for her? How could I put us both at ease? And in fact, this was a great technique, and the whole thing went very smoothly, and I could even notice that it felt kind of good, like a little massage before a long flight.

This shift in consciousness reminded me of a time when I was a teenager and I was lying on a rock by the ocean, soaking in the summer sun. But there were these little flies that kept landing on me and annoying me. So annoying, these little flies. So annoying. It was a perfect sunny day by the ocean, if it wasn't for these flies. And then I noticed. Those little flies didn't actually feel bad on my skin. They weren't biting, they didn't hurt, or itch, or anything. In fact, they felt kind of good, like little light brushed tickles on my arms and legs. It was a total consciousness shift -- and it has lasted now over 30 years.

So there you go -- just another of the perks of a Mussar mindset and modern international travel -- free massages before your flights.