Traveling Light

Back in 1996 I was getting ready for a long trip that would take me through much of Europe and Egypt. I was planning to be gone months yet I wanted to travel light. The Internet was a pretty new thing at the time but I found a site, a kind of proto-blog, created by a woman who traveled extensively throughout the world. Her only luggage was a purse and a carry-on bag. This was one of her rules: Create a list of only the things you absolutely have to bring with you then cut the list in half.

I followed her advice and boarded the plane for London with only a carry-on suitcase that could be converted to a backpack (a feature that was itself unnecessary). I was fine. I don't recall ever pining for something I'd left behind.

I adopted traveling light as a principle and I've tried to apply it to other facets of life, not just traveling. But it's hard. The world really wants me to accumulate stuff and it's so easy and so cheap (relatively speaking). I live in a small house and, somehow, despite the fact I'm not a collector by nature, my home is overflowing with stuff, most of which I don't use or need. I'm planning to purge the clutter but it's turning into quite a project. I wish I'd had the discipline to refrain from buying most of the things in the first place.

I also believe that the principle of traveling light can be applied to the clutter of the mind. In a way, cleaning that attic is a more daunting challenge than getting rid of physical things.

Whether it's objects or ideas, purging excess requires ruthlessness. It's easy to get attached to things and ideas. To cast them aside, you have to be willing to put on your emotional hardhat and realize there are no precious objects nor precious ideas. One has to be ready to say good riddance to any of them.

This is an instance where the warrior idiom comes in handy, particularly an unencumbered, swift-footed one like a peltast*.

[What? You say this warrior metaphor is just another idea I'll need to part with. Over my dead body!]