In case

You were thinking: “All of this traveling lightly business has led to a lot of bag-buying for you, hasn’t it?”

Yes, I’m aware of the irony. Acquiring more things in order to carry less.

It is a peculiarity driven by my impatience.

At last, this latest bag is right. Now I can move on to the next step: Getting rid of stuff. Lots of it.
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I had a garage sale once.

Right after September 11 when everyone felt the need to do something, anything to make things feel right again.

The sale changed my buying habits for good. Now every time I’m out wandering the stores looking for something, anything to buy, I picture each item sitting on a table in my garage. On sale for 25 cents.

It’s helped a bit with those impulse purchases.
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No more garage sales for me, though.

I’m all about eBay.

I read an article somewhere comparing prices at a garage sale versus on-line. A new pair of tennis shoes that sold for $40 on eBay went for just $3 at a garage sale.

It’s a tiny hassle with the picture-taking, posting, and shipping, but I figure I’ll get good at it after a while.
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Why not donate the things you don’t want anymore?

I do. There’s a lovely Goodwill drop-off center just up the street. Any time I want to feel extra unfettered I sort through things and make a deposit.

But there’s some stuff you just can’t donate.

Like what?

Stuff that nobody really needs, but somebody really wants and is willing to pay for on-line.

Think knick-knacks, bric-a-brac, give this bitch some bones. Oy!
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In case you’re wondering if all this external lightening up has translated internally, I’m afraid not. Not yet.

It reminds me of a passage from the Gospel of Thomas:

Jesus said, “Why do you wash the outside of the cup? Don’t you understand that the one who made the inside is also the one who made the outside?”

It’s my favorite of all the apocryphal sayings attributed to Jesus.

We bother with all this external stuff, scrubbing up so we’re presentable and homogenized for the world.

Jesus understood that the heavy duty cleaning – the get on your hands and knees with a scrub brush and bleach cleaning – needs to be done on the inside.

So just like spring-cleaning a dusty old house that’s been closed up far too long, I’m going to meditate on vanquishing some of the particularly virulent dust bunnies in my brain.
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One more thing for the Can't Be in a Bad Mood List: When you see a dude on a motorcycle doing a wheelie down Wacker Drive at 7:20 a.m.
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I am reading: Nothing
I am listening to: Frank Zappa – Dirty Love
And I am: Filthy