I was shopping at a health food store the other day and a friend of mine happened to have been standing on the same line at the cash register. We both heard our casher make a request to go to the bathroom to another employee who passed by her. The line behind us was long. After he said ok, about 5-10 minutes passed and there was no sign that she could go. My friend started asking her questions. "Can you not go to the bathroom?" "I've been asking for some time, but haven't been able to yet." "Why?" She kept punching in codes and numbers. Still no sign of a person, a savior to let her go to the bathroom. When we went outside of the store, we saw another employee who seemed more authoritative and asked him why she could not go to the bathroom. His answer was blunt. "We cannot make our customers wait." My friend didn't budge."If I have to wait that long, I would pee in my pants." "I understand your concern, but she is fine. Someone is going to come to take her place." "I'm just saying that she was waiting for a long time - noone came. You should let her go." "I appreciate your concern, but I have to disagree. We do let people go to the bathroom. She just has to wait so that we can serve the customers." He was clearly abiding by the cooperation rule, not the humanity rule. We left him, feeling unresolved. To save her from trouble, my friend had to make sure to let him know that she didn't come to us for rescue but we asked her about this situation. This incident reminded me of the film, "Food", in which how capitalism that we thrive on is harming us in the end. But that was about big cooperations. This is a health food store, which is supposed to be advocating the holistic view on life and respect for humanity. I imagined. What if she goes to the bathroom and we wait? If she had gone to the bathroom with the agreement of all the customers at her register, what would have happened? She, who was faceless up to this point, would have become a memorable person. We would have had an opportunity to talk to her as a person. A connection would have been born between us and her, and possibly amongst us. What if, there is a ridiculous rule that every time a casher goes to the bathroom, someone on her line has to sing a song instead of complaining? To celebrate being a human? To thank her for reminding us that she is not a machine and neither are we? To thank the store for making the waiting process unique and enjoyable?