You'd think that crossing a country's border might not be an appropriate time to be all smiley. It's a serious business. There are stamps on passports and whatnot. And at least one person in the conversation is carrying a gun, and it's not me.
But you already know how I feel about immigration agents.
This one is new. Tuesday morning I was with another person checking in for some outpatient surgery--hers, not mine. I was just the adult. The aide checking us in took a look at our faces and said, "It's okay to smile. You don't have to be so serious."
The surger-ee said, "But this is serious." And it was. And the aide didn't even know what we were there for. We could have been checking in for an inoperable tumor that we were insisting should be operated on anyway. We could have been there for any number of things. What we were there for was plenty serious.
So here's a question: When did it become unacceptable to be appropriately serious?
And here's another: Is it an American thing? Are Canadians urged to be jovial just before someone slices them open?
Discuss amongst yourselves. I'm just here in the sun, smiling away.
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A U.S. writer living in Canada examines borders, boundaries, and other invisible (though not imaginary) lines.
