The Church of TSA?

I was going through airport security this morning and was dealing with my usual perturbation. There must have been 20 TSA employees milling around, hectoring travelers and making endless demands; loath to offer assistance, let alone lift a finger to help.

At one point I was standing there with one shoe on (my other one had to be rescanned) and my belt in my hand trying to gather all my loose change and boarding passes, when the row of bins had a pile up at the end of the conveyor belt. They collapsed together accordion-like. A free-handed TSA employee standing across from me chirped, “Let’s try to keep the bins moving along!” 

A tempered version of the following sentiment teetered on the tip of my tongue:

Have any of you ever considered actually lifting a finger to help? Or is that too obvious? You just prefer to bark orders and demands at people whose hands are already full?

I bit said tongue and kept the sentiment to myself as I hobbled into the seating area, dragging my stuff along like a scene from The Jerk.

I took one last glance into the security area and thought, “What a miserable impression that leaves one with! Dozens of people being paid to loiter around with arms akimbo or crossed; rolling their eyes and barking orders when they could—SHOULD—be serving and helping and extending understanding!”

And it occurred to me, “This is probably how people view the church!”

Ugh.

church | ch ər ch | n. – a bunch of people with no baggage who tell you all the rules you’re breaking and roll their eyes at your struggles, when they could—SHOULD!—give an ounce of grace; maybe even help! 

True? I hope not!

Battlefield Earth

The above video conveys a subtle but profound message. We see everyone from everyday professionals and people in the service industry to high profile entertainers (Jimmy Kimmel) and athletes (Kobe Bryant) enmeshed in an epic battle sequence. The ad ends with a deli worker (or is it a butcher) striding like Scarface toward the camera, emptying cartridges of ammo from two 9mm to either side before dropping both pistols nonchalantly. Fire and plumes of smoke fill the background, and the subtitle appears:

"There's a soldier in all of us."

What's the message? We all have an inner soldier, who yearns to enter the battle. What's the implication? There's a video game that can sate that urge. A video game! The "Call" is to let that inner warrior play war in a virtual world--to fight a virtual battle from the safety of his or her own couch.


Does this not beg the question, "It there not a real battle in front of all of us; one which our inner soldier must fight?" I would argue the answer is yes! How can it be otherwise?