Opinion: Carrying more than needed

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Sometimes, I imagine that my parents must have been clairvoyant. They warned of the inevitable turns that my life’s path might take decades before they happened. Their advice could not have imagined the form that my family or career might adopt, yet I constantly reflect on their insight and am amazed by their prescience. How do the things that we learned as kids come back to us over and over again as adults?

Perhaps our folks simply tapped into the human inevitability of natural pattern and were only passing to us the truisms of a lifetime of experience. The basis of our civilization, some would say, is fully vested in each of us by the time that we enter the first grade. Be nice. Don’t take something that doesn’t belong to you. Care for those weaker and lonely. Value one’s inner character more than the desirous objects or even people that come and go from our domain.

Can we determine the importance to one’s life of another person or thing by taking it away? If we miss it, does that feeling set its value? Over time for me, the approach has proven a fairly effective guide. There is so much – some might call it baggage – that we carry along either because we are afraid to let it go or, perhaps even more tragically, because we forget that we even have it. The habit of pruning is a good one. But, the ability to discern what matters from what doesn’t can be tricky.

Can we ever really expect to find happiness if we don’t leave the unnecessary luggage at baggage claim? I tend to carry more than is required. It may be time to shake out my emotional hoard and decide what’s worth keeping. A lighter load sounds most appealing.


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