Why Not Ride the Golf Cart? | Rabbi Fischel Schachter

So here I am, I’m on my way back to America. My friend drops me off at the airport. He says to me: Did you eat anything or drink anything today? I said no. He says: Here, here's a cappuccino. It's like a little frozen coffee. I said: I can't take it on. You know, you can't take liquid because you can turn cappuccinos into bombs somehow. I don't know how, but I guess somebody knows. He said: No, no. If it's frozen, it goes through security. I said: You're sure? -Absolutely. So here I am, I’m coming through security and the person, like, gave me this angry look. I wasn't sure exactly what I did wrong. And they tagged my bag and he pulls me over and I was thinking: Uh-oh, what's the problem? And he takes out the cappuccino. And he waves it at me like he just caught a submachine gun and he's staring it me. He goes: You can't read the sign? The sign. Can't take liquids, and right underneath it says, If it's frozen, it's okay. So I wanted to say: You can't read the sign? But I thought, I'm not going to be sarcastic. I just said politely: I thought if it's frozen, it's okay. And he crushes it. Half the cappuccino shoots out of the top, the other half shoots out the bottom. And he says: This is not frozen, it's mush. I said: Well, it's mush now because you mushed it. And he starts yelling at me. He opens my bag, dumps the contents out, takes out my Shtreimel. What's this? I wanted to tell him it's a steering wheel of a tank, but I decided I said: It's a hat. You know what it is. You have any metal or iron here? Metal or iron? No. Takes up my Shabbos Tallis, and there's the Atara, the crown of the Tallis. What's this? I said: Wait a second. You know what that is, okay? Can I please speak to your supervisor? I have a thing or two to say to him. He walks away, dumps everything down, down onto the table. I don't know what he wants. The supervisor is not coming. I'm going to miss my flight. Should I grab everything, put it into my bag? I’ll take a chance, I guess. And I put everything in. I was trying to imagine, am I going to be arrested over here because of this terrible crime? A Shtreimel, an Atara and a cappuccino. Can you imagine what witch's brew you can do out of that? I just started going and I stopped. I said: Wait a second, Hashem. I've been to airports thousands of times. This never happened to me. Why? And I said: I need a stronger resolve to watch my own eyes. If I would watch my own eyes, his eyes wouldn't be as strict. I said: Ribono shel Olam, please help me. From here to the gate, I'll do everything I can. I want to protect my eyes. But I got to see my way to the gate. If I wind up in Honolulu, that may be a bigger Shemiras Einayim problem. But you help me. And all of a sudden, there's a tap on my shoulder and I see the sleeve of a uniform. Here it is, I'm getting arrested. And I turn around, it was a uniform, but it was someone else. He said: Want a ride on the golf cart? I said: Sure. And I get onto the golf cart and I close my eyes the entire time. He takes me to the gate. When we get off, I said to him: I'm just curious. Thank you so much, but why did you ask me? He goes: We ask all older people. Oh, great. Thanks. But then I realized it. The second I stopped being angry at this person, and I said: Ribono shel Olam, everything is you. If he sees something he shouldn't see, then I have to straighten out the way I see, the same uniform, well, not ממש the same uniform, but another uniformed officer instead of antagonizing me, became my source of Bracha. And Shemiras Einayim could be our source of Bracha. Instead of having to suffer our way through life, why not ride the golf cart?