After dragging three bags around and getting fined for being overweight at the check-in counter, I thought that the rest would be smooth sailing. You wait at the long line where you have to keep a smiling happy face as the TSA scans your face and yells at you because they are trying to protect us. As my carry-on runs through the x-ray I find out I completely forgot about two great big bottles of wine that are liquid (my fault for forgetting! :P) and my backpack gets flagged for searching.
Apparently, there is some property inside of a Chipotle burrito that triggers sensors in an airport x-ray, warning us of the impending explosive potential within. This is surprising for two reasons. First off, I wonder what the people managing the machines are looking for. Is it the liquid properties of the guacamole and sour cream that set off alarms? I watched intently as the man searching my bag wiped some kind of chemical pad around my bag looking for explosive particles or something inside my bag (well, that's what I imagined they were doing, otherwise they were alcohol padding the inside of my bag for an injection :P). After the machine he put the pad in beeped, confirming that my bag was explosive free thus far, the man started poking and prodding around my bag. He took out my chipotle brown bag, opened it up, and was about to stick his fingers and prod my burrito. He unrolled the bag carefully, and stuck his gloved finger in slowly, contact within seconds. At this point I decided I should tell him, "It's a burrito," which I did. "Sure smells like one," was his response, and he wrapped it up without prodding it. Crisis averted, burrito intact unprodded.
The second surprising and perhaps scary thought is, "What the hell are they putting in those burritos!" That it would set off security alerts and call for a bag search seems pretty intense. What kind of atomic beans are they putting in there, and what sort of chemically processed guacamole am I to ingest? I read the label on the Chipotle softdrink cup and see them selling the Chipotle freshness and support for small farmers. Then I take a drink of the soda that is manufactured by Coca-Cola and wonder which small farmer helped to make this soda? If big companies were really out to help out the small time families and local folks, would they need to paste these all over the place? But then again, when is the last time I've bothered to search the background of some company I'm buying from?
These costs of freedom really make one think about what we are truly sacrificing for. What is freedom but a name, and if we must pay for it, is it really something we want? Is happiness purchasable? When did we become so attached to the idea that purchasing material goods is the only way to add to our happiness? Why would a historical background of when this began help us? Rather than blame someone, maybe it's just better to do something, to learn to appreciate some of those nothings that are priceless and enjoy them. Sure I'm saying this now, but how easy is it really to get out of this loop?
