Little losses...

My wife and I are contemplating travel to Canada this summer for the Archdiocesan Convention in Montreal and the topic of passports came up.

More than a decade ago I had family living in northern Minnesota minutes away from the border, so close, in fact that they often went to Winnipeg for shopping. In those days all you needed to do was hold up your bucket as you passed north and Canadian customs knew you were going to pick blueberries and waved you on through. You could wave "hi" on the way back as long as our customs didn't think you were smuggling in Cuban cigars.

That seems like a long time ago. Probably was.

Of all the things I miss about these times those kinds of things, a more trusting gentle way, seem to cause the most melancholy. Now we're screened in, screened through, screened out, and travel with documents and permits and the threat of search and detainment if we miss some detail. There will probably never again be a time when you can take a joy ride into Canada like I did when I was in college or be waved across any border with a berry bucket as your credentials.

I know its necessary. I know, too, that others (like the victims of 9-11) have been inconvenienced beyond my imagination and so I have little about which to complain. But the fact I can't hardly cash a check anymore, have to pre-pay for gasoline when the sun goes down, and now may need a passport just to cross into Canada, kills me not in one big fireball but rather by hundreds of little needles each taking a drop of blood. One by one they are inconsequential, together they can be fatal.

I guess if people don't have honesty in and of themselves they will make a law to enforce it. If people aren't going to allow morality, honesty, and trust be part of thier lives there will be a regulation to that effect. I've not changed but at least now I'll have the paperwork to prove it.