Thought for the Day - Jul 17,00

Subject: Thought for the Day - Jul 17,00
From: Peter T.
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 10:44 AM

An interesting struggle I find is trying to reconcile the Spartan and the Omnivore in my life. This shows up most acutely in the dream that I can pick the 10 books, or the one backpack, or the smallest universal first aid kit; versus the sprawl of library books, records, paintings, etc., that I cannot imagine doing without. Aldous Huxley had this problem as well, and came up with ingenious solutions -- he purchased what was for its time an incredibly expensive onion-skin edition (onion-skin being the lightest of all possible opaque papers) of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which he carried around with him on his hikes. The e-book may well be the grandchild of this impulse.

But I can see it in other things: travel guitars, backpackers songbooks, field guides -- how to cram the most into the least amount of space. I notice that, for other reasons, the Japanese are big on this: those complete carpenter's kits on a credit card. On good days, I am reminded of the analogy of the human brain -- trillions of cells in a tiny space -- on bad days, I am reminded of one of those closets crammed to the ceiling, whose door one dare not open for fear of avalanche.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Jul 17,00
From: wysiwyg
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 12:02 PM

Well, this is like the dilemma of going to visit other Mudcatters.... what instruments and songbooks to pack??? ("What do you want to sing?" "I dunno, whadda YOU wanna sing?" "Do you know.....?" "No, how about....." "Wrong key...." "Yeah me too.....")

AND travel light to conserve energy in short supply!

WEEKS of fretting!!! Autoharp? No good, as I play it, without new and somewhat fragile amp. Aaaarrrghhh!!! Right now I can't even load it in the car by myself!

I finally resolved it. In a medium-size, hard plastic gun case rests one of the two small plucked psalteries that usually lives there in padding. But for the trip, in place of the other alternate key psaltery, is a very small washboard, the Gospel Singer's Wordbook, two copies of Rise Up Singing, some picks, and the therapeutic claves. And I bet I overpacked. The rest I am taking in my brain and throat, and armloads of hugs will cover the rest.

~S~

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Jul 17,00
From: Willie-O
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 12:07 PM

In the hardware department at Canadian Tire where I'll be wearing the red shirt later today, we sell a lot of rather outstandingly compact & organized toolkits in moulded plastic cases. The quality of the tools is less a factor than that they're (almost) all there and you open the box and you can find them, use them, then put them away. Also, they're WAY A LOT CHEAPER than buying individual tools as you need them, and throwing them in a big red box (or some corner of your house) where you spend all your time looking for them.

But the upshot of this is that I carry two toolboxes around in my vehicle (car tools only, not when I'm actually working): one is the 177 piece kit, the other is the old red box that has the disarrayed stuff I've collected over the years and figure I might need.

I'm forever nostalgic for the old hithchiking days. Not for the hitchhiking, just for being able to fit all my essentials into a pack and a guitar case. Them days are gone...

W-O

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Jul 17,00
From: katlaughing
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 01:03 PM

eBay does wonders for lightening a load...until you wander around and find what everyone else has to offer...**BG**

This year has been the get-rid-of-heavy-stuff and go for keeping the treasures which are also heavy (family archival papers) but cannot be replaced. Sold the piano, the heavy Victorian dining table and chairs, and a Mission Oak rocker, gave away a Victorian heavy bureau with mirror, one ladderback rocking chair and the oak desk with the neat pop-up typewriter hideaway. Still have 7 rockers, 2 or 3 of which will not move with us next time.

Books? Ah, books....pretty hard to elt any of them go...

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Jul 17,00
From: Sorcha
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 01:10 PM

I've been having this problem too, esp. since inheriting a third of Mom's "stuff"........what do I keep for posterity, what do I sell/give away? No answers so far. About once a year, I go through the books, and if I haven't cracked the cover in the last 2 years, off it goes to the Library Used Book sale, to make room for more. The only exception to this is my collection of Celtic/Irish reference books and music/tune collections.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Jul 17,00
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 01:10 PM

Being that I am on canoe trips often, it has taught me to scale down what I do bring. The weight is a major factor with portaging. So I get use to leaving many things behind. It is a great feeling for me to streamline what I really need.
Recently I went to my girlfriend's cabin. The only thing I brought was my banjo, a good book and a pad of paper. The cabin is quite simplistic. Just the basics and I found it inspiring to start streamlining my home again.
I have this goal, that I could pack up my home in 24 hours notice. The more things I let go of that I 'think' I may need one day, the greater freedom I feel.
Well maybe one day I will be like one of the Jain monks that walks from town to town naked owning not even clothing. Just a feather to dust off where they sits so as not to kill anything. I think the Jain monks do carry something else but I can't remember what the other thing is.

Bare essentials Bonnie

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Jul 17,00
From: katlaughing
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 01:13 PM

The Bare-Nekkid Pied Piper Bare Essentials Bonnie! Wait'll Spaw sees this!!!LMAO!!

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Jul 17,00
From: Micca
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 01:50 PM

Now this is a thread I understand, after 3+ years at sea when everything you could take with you had to fit in 2, at most , cases or bags as you had to carry them down gangways or to distant jetty ends for a taxi, to get to even more distant railway stations to get home or join the ship, I vowed I would NEVER reduce my book collection or living gear to that level again,. If anything happens to stuff, then so be it but I am very resistant to being "portable" and "packable in a hurry" ever again, BTW that screeching sound is my SO tearing her hair out...

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Jul 17,00
From: IvanB
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 01:57 PM

Having retired a couple years ago, my wife and I tend to travel quite a bit. When we head out we usually go for 7-10 weeks at a stretch. Since we bought a minivan back in '94, packing initially wasn't much of a problem. For Gaile, it still isn't - she can be happy with a supply of good books and a TV set. I, on the other hand, HAVE to have my guitar (and I haven't opted for a backpacker model quite yet) and my portable CD player, along with its amplified speakers, cables etc. Oh, that means I need CD's also - I started out with a 24 CD carrier and am now up to a 100. I'm waiting for one of those portable players that'll also play MP3's to become stable, so I can put my whole d**n collection on 100 CD's. And, over the past couple years, it's also become essential to have my mountain dulcimer and concertina along. All this, of course means more music, music stand and miscellaneous paraphernalia. We see these 'old' couples on our travels with their minivans or vans piled up so high with their belongings that they can't see out the rear windows, and we laugh. But, I have to wonder if that's us, twenty years down the road.

Hmmm, wonder if I could fit the hammered dulcimer in on this next trip...

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Jul 17,00
From: flattop
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 02:13 PM

Reminds me of a tiny story that I read last summer, Haliburton Bonnie.

A monk gave up everything except for his begging bowl. One day he fell and broke the bowl. As he picked himself up he says, 'At last, I'm free.'

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Jul 17,00
From: Jim the Bart
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 02:14 PM

Banjo Bonnie - Two questions come to mind: 1. Where do they keep the feather? 2. Doesn't that tickle?"

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Jul 17,00
From: Jim the Bart
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 02:23 PM

I like having a real house, where I can keep my stuff. I figure it's good to have knowledge of the things that this technologically marvelous age have provided. After all, we have sacrificed our sense of simplicity to get here; and we're not going to get the clean air, or clear water, or darkness, or solitude back whether we like it or not. I do have some rules about buying stuff, though. It's got to be esthetically pleasing. It has to be a graceful solution. It has to be practical and easy to use. It has to have inherent value. It has to be priced somewhere below my soul. I have to be able to walk away without it at a moments notice.

I'm sure there are more (and better) rules, but these are the ones that come to mind.

Bart - who wants a simple life and a box to keep it in, too.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Jul 17,00
From: Zeno
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 02:34 PM

Mom taught me to fit 10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag. Said it was a Polish thing. Part of my heritage. The part I can't figure out, is what my ancestors were doing with all that shit in the first place.

When books were still for the very rich, when they were hand written by monks, me and my pal Socrates used to have to memorize entire volumes of text on the spot. We knew we may never get to see that book again, and when we were engaged in deep and important conversations about why all Mudcatters are white, right handed heterosexuals, we could cite these important texts from memory to solidify and augment our arguments.

Plus, we had no pockets and there was not a lot of storage space on the streets (it was before shopping carts were invented).

It has been proposed that the invention of the printing press, then paperback books, now computers and the internet are destroying our facility of memory. From my observation at song circles, these song books we lug around are ruining us.

I'm going back to the streets…

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Jul 17,00
From: JenEllen
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 02:56 PM

I grew up in a military household, so it became routine every year or so for my father to enter my room with an apple box and say "Pack." What didn't fit in the box, well, it just didn't go. Forever I mourned the losses of things.

When I moved out and into my own place, naturally I rebelled against the tossing. I saved everything. Every book I'd ever read, garbage or no, letters, recipes, plants, pictures, fabrics... The problem was that I am terribly neat, so that all the crap actually LOOKED like less, so I could kid myself quite easily. And travelling was never a problem, I could go anywhere lightly, knowing my stuff was safe at home.

I've relaxed quite a bit about it now, and find it suits me just fine. Every spring I go through the house, top to bottom. If I haven't seen it/used it in the past year, it goes to charity. Clothing and household stuff mostly, I can't seem to get rid of the books and music just yet, but I have learned to listen to the little voice that says "keep it..you just never know...".

~Elle

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Jul 17,00
From: GUEST,Hutch
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 02:59 PM

They *do* claim that the Celtic bards had to memorize hundreds of tales before they were considered ready to serve as apprentices.

Now I've got a fair-to-middlin' good memory, but that's IMPRESSIVE!

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Jul 17,00
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 03:44 PM

Okay guys, if I give up the bowl and I find a convenient orifice to hide the feather, do you think I will finally ascend?

Bare Essentials Bonnie

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Jul 17,00
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 04:12 PM

Pack Rat would be a good description of me... I never throw anything away (it might be usefull one day) words my Admiral dreads to hear LOL Books all over the floor (dropped as I rush out the door saying I'll be back) papers from lesson plans everywhere (I dont use lesson plans anymore because I memorised everything) Periodically we shovel everything into boxes and hide them. Clothes and toys for the Seamans Mission or Salvation Army collected for weeks then driven and delivered on the odd Sunday RCC lets me stay home.... Ahhhh bliss I'm on holiday for three weeks...Time to accumulate more stuff. Aye. Dave

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Jul 17,00
From: Peter T.
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 05:10 PM

Bonnie, the other thing they often carry (well, wear) is a facial net/veil to keep from inhaling bugs. Having seen one or two on the road in India, I saw no feathers. One did have a disciple with a broom -- it was a little like watching curling.

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Jul 17,00
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 05:58 PM

Oh that is right Peter, it was a little dust broom.
Well Bartholomew, I sure don't plan to hide one of those up a spare orifice.

Bare Essentials Bonnie

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Jul 17,00
From: Melani
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 07:18 PM

I have an unfortunate tendency to amass large amounts of all kinds of stuff, notably books, tapes, CD's, instruments, and tools. I lived for almost a year in a Dodge van with my husband, two dogs, and a traveling leather shop, and it was crowded, to say the least. We moved from a three-room apartment to a three-bedroom house, and it took us less than a year to fill up the whole house and the basement. Every time a charity group calls for donations, I say yes and clean out a few more bags of extraneous stuff and outgrown children's clothes, but there is always more to fill up the space. Every day I carry a backpack, a briefcase, and a bag or two of assorted stuff I might need that day. The up side is that if anybody needs anything, I've probably got it. As teenager, I was very impressed by the character Sam in "Lord of the Rings". Whenever the group was in danger and needed some extra food or equipment, Sam would save the day by saying, "I just happen to have one of those! I put it in my pack because I thought we might need it." So now I am known as "Sam" in certain circles.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Jul 17,00
From: catspaw49
Date: 18 Jul 00 - 01:44 AM

Tell ya' what BonAmi........First, never stick nothin' in any available orifice that you'd normally use to sweep the floor! If you confuse the broom with a vacuum there could be trouble.

And second, skip all that other crap........ just whip on some white socks and we be cookin'!!!!!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Jul 17,00
From: Jim the Bart
Date: 18 Jul 00 - 10:29 AM

My youngest, when he was 4 years old, used to run around naked with a white sock strategically placed to look like he had a tail draggin'. Maybe a multi-colored whisk broom, if strategically placed, would make one look like a peacock.