If you are going to live abroad, I strongly recommend that you consider the things to take and the things to off-load. We have still got a mountain of stuff stored in England and really wish that we had got rid of most of it. If you make the leap, you will soon realize that most possessions are just an encumbrance on - essentially freedom of movement: true impedimenta! Moving it all around (and paying for it), insuring it, housing it, securing it, worrying about it. Better by far to get rid of it!
Moreover, lingering memories of lugging and hauling and humping ruddy-great, mammoth-like suitcases (stuffed and straining to breaking point with useless rubbish), from the nervy scrummage surrounding airport carousels and pushing them around on groaning trolleys, with defective wheels, mean that I would never, ever, ever (I don't care what she says), ever again travel on an airplane with more than: a down pillow, a good book, a notepad and pencils, a box of sweets, a snuff box, a few large handkerchiefs, a hipflask, eau de cologne (each when permissible), a toothbrush, a razor, a comb and the smallest possible cabin bag to put it all in. There is some great merit, on short trips, in cutting it all down to: toothbrush, razor and comb.
Then you just pause as you stroll towards the exit, and watch the senseless, dyspeptic, frowning lemmings scuttling off down the rat-run towards the carousel. You smile a little smile - and get the hell outa there.
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Storing pointless things... I know too well the routine: keeping things of alleged sentimental value, only to realise years later that I do not even recall what those sentiments were!
ReplyDeleteWell written NJS!
ReplyDeleteHave you noticed how much more interest your Blog is receiving?
I feel the same way about any kind of travelling these days, it's such a hassle. Travelling by train is about as much as I can cope with these days.
ReplyDeleteThanks, all. Chikashi - it's even worse when you forget what the things are! Anon - visitors seem to be staying for longer. B&P - Don't you feel that train travel is a drag in itself, though?
ReplyDeleteNJS
Hear, Hear! I started out with travelling light, but with a growing family I'm heavier than a Sumo wrestler. I mean I have two sets of good quality china stored away in two different countries and I live in a hotel ;)
ReplyDeleteLSS - I think that we start out wanting to travel light. Then we become students and have to haul textbooks around. Then it snowballs from there until we get to middle age and realize that we were right in the first place! Getting back to the Higher Path takes some doing. Disposing of all the junk takes a lot of effort.
ReplyDeleteNJS