Proceedings on Travel Document Recheck

Matter: The Third Passport Check This Morning Location: Kerbside Pickup, Forty Minutes Before Departure Chair: The Traveler's Own Judgment

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CHAIR: Let the record note that the passport has been confirmed present.

TRAVELER: I know.

CHAIR: It was checked at home before leaving.

TRAVELER: Yes.

CHAIR: It was checked in the car.

TRAVELER: I know.

CHAIR: And again just now at the kerbside.

TRAVELER: I just needed to be sure.

CHAIR: You were sure. The check confirmed this. What information is a fourth check expected to produce?

TRAVELER: [reaching toward the front pocket]

CHAIR: Please note for the record that the traveler is reaching again.

TRAVELER: [touches the outline of the passport through the fabric] It's there.

CHAIR: We know.

TRAVELER: I know we know.

CHAIR: The proceedings observe that the traveler has now checked four times and the level of certainty has not changed. The passport was there at check one. It was there at check four. It will be there at check five, which appears to be incoming.

TRAVELER: What if I put it somewhere else without remembering?

CHAIR: That is a question about a thing that did not happen.

TRAVELER: It's happened before.

CHAIR: Once. In 2019. After that incident you began checking more frequently.

TRAVELER: And?

CHAIR: And the passport has been where you put it every time since then.

TRAVELER: So the system works.

CHAIR: The proceedings decline to adjudicate whether the system works because determining efficacy of an anxiety-management ritual requires a counterfactual we cannot access.

TRAVELER: So I should keep checking.

CHAIR: The proceedings note that the flight is in forty minutes and the passport will be checked at minimum two more times before boarding. This is already known by all parties.

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Travel document recheck becomes policy after the second trip. It is now policy. The proceedings are adjourned.