First they X-rayed our carry-ons, our purses, backpacks and briefcases.  Then we docilely emptied our pockets, piling our change, keys pens, Kleenex, old cough drops and breath mints into plastic trays.  We shed our jackets and placed them on the rubber belt.  Next we took off our shoes.

We learned to omit underwire bras and metal belt buckles from our traveling outfits.  We shucked the cases from our laptops.  We submitted to wanding.  Soon we were required to abandon our coffee and our water bottles before journeying though security.  The quicker among us adapted, wearing loafers and clogs to the airport, a strategy sometimes at odds with the weather we traveled through to get to the terminal.  The rest of us, dehydrated and caffeine-deficient, stumbled into the secure zone searching for the nearest spot to sit down so we could put our shoes back on and reassemble ourselves, all the while clutching our jackets and laptops.

I've long thought that it would be progress just to have the passengers lie down on the belt.  They could run us -- full pockets, jacket, shoes, backpack, laptop and all -- right though the machine.  (If we have the lid firmly in place, maybe they'd let us take our coffee with us.)

In time, the Transportation Security Administration could team up with the medical establishment.  If, as you are being electronically searched for Swiss Army knives, knitting needles and stray bits of explosives, anything shows up that your doctor should check out, TSA gives you a little card and perhaps a copy of the scan with the suspected anomaly circled.

As the computerization of medical records continues to expand, some day the scan could be sent straight to your doctor's office.  If you like, you can book your follow-up appointment through a little medical scheduler's kiosk before you board your flight.  This could be a great leap forward in preventive healthcare.

I recently blew an afternoon at the Lakewood Hometown Health Spa having high-tech pictures taken of my innards.  If the system I envision were in place, I might have combined this mundane follow-up procedure with my holiday travel.  It's really a win-win... save time, possibly aggravation, and cut healthcare costs in the bargain.

Well, it seems that the TSA is already headed in this direction.  A recent headline, in our metropolitan daily read, "See Right Through You."  It topped a story about full-body imaging equipment already in use in some parts of the country and, it promised, coming soon to an airport near you.

You don't lie down on the belt, as I've imagined.  Instead, you step into a portal of sorts, like Clark Kent turning into Superman, or a Star Trekker about to be beamed up.  Pictures of your completely unclothed self, and anything you might be trying to hide, are revealed on a screen at an undisclosed location.

Privacy and civil rights advocates are raising alarms over the startlingly accurate and detailed body images that result, characterizing this procedure as a sort of electronic strip-search.  At least for now, passengers may choose to opt out of the body-beaming thing and submit to a pat-down instead.  But you know how it goes.  Give us a nifty tech-toy like this and we're going to want to use it.

I say, let's try to be positive about this.  Hook the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals into the system and we'd be on our way.  And not just to Miami, Chicago or Boston.