The Definition of Irony
13 December 2004
Yesterday, A. and I had a lengthy discussion about why instead of carrying my passport with me everywhere I go, it would be better for me to make a photocopy of it and carry that around in my purse instead.
Presently, I carry my passport with me most of the time. It is a habit that I acquired when I studied in France during my junior year of college. Before we went overseas, the college held an orientation for us and one of the things they impressed upon us was that while we were overseas we should always have ID (i.e., our passports) with us in case we were asked by the French officials for identification. We were told to have copies of those documents in case the originals got lost, but since our American driver’s licenses would no longer suffice for ID, we were informed that the only ID we had was our passport. Maybe the college officials were being overly dramatic in order to make an impression on us, I don’t know. However, I took those words to heart and though I was never asked for ID on the street, I carried my passport with me everywhere in France.
When I moved to Germany, those long ago warnings of the study-abroad coordinators resurfaced, and without giving it much thought, I started carrying my passport with me once again for identification purposes. Granted, it will be a big headache if my purse ever gets lost or stolen with my passport in it, nevertheless, I’m very uncomfortable about not having any “official” ID with me when I am out and about on my own. I do have a German driver’s license which, in theory, I could show, but it isn’t considered official identification.
I explained this to A. and tough he understood, he couldn’t help but feel it was unwise to have such an important document with me all the time. I pressed the issue of, “What if I am asked by the authorities for official identification and I don’t have any? Then what?”
Apparently, this was a good argument and so we did some investigation and learned that if I am asked for ID by a German official and I don’t have any with me, they can either 1.) detain me if they think I am suspicious 2.) request that I present my ID within a certain time period (usually 24 hours) or 3.) just let me go. So, after discovering that, I agreed with A. that I probably don’t need to carry my passport with me all the time… as long as German officials think I look as honest as I think I do.
However, here is the ironic part of this whole story… after we had this discussion, guess what happened? Today, while my passport grins up at me from my computer desk and the photocopy is nestled snugly in my purse, A. can’t seem to find HIS passport!
