Day 45: Managing all the Stuff

Dom noticed me moving items from my little white purse which I had used this weekend to the big – no, oversized – bag I usually carry and he casually inquired, “You going back to the big purse?” I felt busted. Like I had just been caught indulging an addiction. I explained in a self-justifying way, “Yes, but only because it holds so much more stuff!”

I tried to get by with the little purse. It’s just that, well, I had a really good system in the big bag. I have everything I could possibly need in the big purse: Band-Aids, Neosporin, Motrin, baby aspirin (in case I suddenly have a heart attack, ya know), nail clippers, USB adapters, cuticle cream, flash drives, device chargers, dental floss…you get the picture. Oh dear…I get the picture too now. Oh, I hate when I put a justification in writing and then reading it makes me realize how un-just it is. Damn blog!

Indulge me this interruption, if you will. My dad used to drive an 18-wheeler. For years after he changed jobs, whenever we would be riding down the street on a family outing or on the interstate headed to my grandmother’s house, other “#$%**@ drivers” would haphazardly change lanes or cut us off or drive in the left lane for too long, thereby invoking a litany of un-repeatables from my father. He would always sum up the tirade with “They wouldn’t do that if I was in my truck!” (Never mind that is was ultimately a little pickup who cut Daddy off on an icy interstate and caused the demise of the 18-wheeler. I have since come to believe Daddy must have felt about that rig the same as I felt about my minivan. No other vehicle would ever measure up.)

I share that with you because I have a tendency to hold too tightly to the same mentality: I wouldn’t be in a bind needing (insert item here) if I had my big purse! You know, if you’re going to eat a nice, healthy organic peach at your desk without the benefit of a knife, then you are certainly going to need dental floss afterward. And I can’t tell you how many times over the last few small-purse days I have wanted to plug in my earpiece charger. And just Saturday in Mass, Aaron realized he had a blister on his foot and there I was, with my little purse and no band-aids, offering the only consolation I could: “You’re gonna have to limp ‘til we get home, dude.”

I recall a Cathy cartoon in which she determines she can do without a purse because guys do it all the time and all they use is pockets. So she stuffs her pockets with everything she can’t do without, and the end frame shows her standing there with her pockets so overstuffed she can’t even relax her arms by her side. (Sidenote: The creator of Cathy, Cathy Guisewite, also has a book called Revelations From a 45-Pound Purse. Sounds like a must-have for my bookshelf!)

I truly WANT the simplicity of the smaller purse. I used to get by with one just fine. And I know that in the midst of all this change, lessening my dependency on stuff is ultimately necessary, not to mention better for my shoulders.

I promise to, um, work on downsizing.