Why would I ever reduce my life to one bag?
So when i started this blog, i had all these ideas and was just going to post on any and every topic that i wanted to post on, but then i realized (with the help of some more practical friends) that a good clarification of the reasons why I want to live out of one bag might be helpful.
I started this whole rucksack idea a long long time ago, and i actually wrote a little manifesto (or at least tried to) and because of my more than anal need to keep every single piece of electronic kruft, i still have it. wow, out of all manifestos i have ever read of other much more important people, this little manifestito about some guy with some bag was amazingly abstract. I spoke about my life and all of our lives as the most important medium for art and expression. i talked about the clothes that i wear being huge statements against sweat shops and my limited possessions elevating me above all those “haves” when in fact maybe i was just compensating... i think i learned about this effect in college, called cognitive dissonance. anyway I decided to get a little more down to earth with it...
it started with Karouac, or to go to the very beginning it started with my girlfriend telling me about these beat guys who were basically like our generation--beat. about them thinking everything was stale and sterile. so i read “On the Road”, i read “Dharma Bums.” Karouac spoke about this endless cycle of consumption. Work to make money, make money to buy things. Things lead to more things which leads to more work and more money and it just gets crazy till we have little midget dogs that we cary in our purses as accessories, and then we get little gucci sunglasses for our little midget dogs, so now even our accessories get accessories and i just lost my train of thought. but yeah, get out of the cycle of consumption. he wanted us to all have our possessions in our rucksacks on our backs and he wanted everyone to just travel around singing and writing and living--the rucksack revolution. before i even had my own apartment, i had All Clad pots, a motorcycle, a 2000 dollar speaker system, 20 dress shirts that i got dry cleaned sorted warm and cool colors light to dark to match my 20 boxers it was crazy. i was crazy. so the first reason is to get out of it. i hate working, everyone hates working, thats why its work right? every purchase costs money which represents time i have to work, and i don’t even wear half of those shirts.
i also wanted a simple life. a “clean” life. if you have a speaker system, you need to buy music, you need to buy shelves to put the system on. you need wires from here to there, and speaker mounts, and renters insurance incase there is a fire, and you need a car to move the speakers to your new place, and then car insurance and... well thats a bit of an exaggeration but you get the picture, so just a simple life.
the rucksack is a system to keep me honest. i can buy anything as long as it fits. this keeps me from every getting too much, it allows me to have more money so that the few things i have are nice things, it gives me mobility to get up and go to live if i want to, to travel carefree or not travel. this isn’t really about traveling, i want a full life in one bag, i don’t want to feel like a traveler, but i want my life to be MY life. i dont want to have things because everyone else has them. i never use plates. everything i cook goes right into a bowl. i never have three friends over for dinner, so why am i buying this dish set with 4 plates and 4 bowls and saucers for never-gonna-get-used tea cups and why would i have a creamer if i’m lactose intolerant? i want to make priorities and not be held back by my possessions, my stuff.
im getting a little lofty and i sometimes can do that and that is usually the time that i should wrap up my writing, so thats what ill do.
posted by elliott at 9:35 AM
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