Excess Baggage

While on your life journey there is always a point where you struggle carrying a heavy load.  Baggage, however, is not the same size, weight, or shape for everyone; we all have our own customized loads.  Interesting enough, our life baggage is mostly what we personally packed along the way.  My Mom traveled light and always said, “bring half the luggage and twice the cash.”  Diane takes a different approach – “three times the cash and you carry two of my bags plus the shoe bag”.  Relative to your journey to wellness, though, its important for you to shed a lot of the bags you have created to lighten your load.

I’m not a big fan of luggage, so I don’t treat it well.  When I was in 6 grade my Dad had my brothers Mark, Chris, and I travel with him to the Albany airport to pick up my Grandmother, aka Snatch.  It was bitter cold out, so none of us wanted to go, but he insisted.  Misery loves company.  As soon as she got off the plane from Erie and for the entire two hour trip back home, she complained about everything known to man. When we got back, my Dad told us to bring her luggage in the back door.  Snatch yelled back to us, “and be careful with my bags, they’re expensive.”  She only had one bag, for God’s sake, one of those hard shelled Samsonite cases big enough to stow a body in.  Mark looked at me with this pissed off face then like an Olympic hammer thrower heaved the Samsonite down the embankment.  Not to be outdone, Chris and I took turns riding it down the hill  like a toboggan.  We spent the next 10 minutes trying to throw it up in the pine tree without success.

Excess baggage is annoying, especially other people’s.  One early morning Diane, the boys, and I were driving to the Ft. Myers airport for a 6:00 AM flight.  Diane drove a two seat convertible then so we had to take my Land Rover and put all the bags on the roof.   Teenagers are a pain in the ass to get moving early so we’re running late.  David was helping me load the luggage on the roof and says, “Don’t you think we should tie those down?” I yelled back, “No, just do as I say and put those fuckin’ bags up there, we’re late.”  About ten minutes up I-75, Devin yells, “Dad, a piece of luggage flew off the roof!”  Well, low and behold, there’s Diane’s shoe bag sitting in the middle of the highway about a quarter of a mile back.  Lucky for me it didn’t get run over by the Mack Truck that passed us;  otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this blog today.

Excess baggage comes in all forms, but the heaviest comes from crummy relationships.  They cause serious strain on your psyche and soul; overtime they damage you more than the Samsonites you’re hauling around.   The challenge with people baggage is we tolerate their shittiness to balance something else in exchange – the job, the neighbor, relatives, the money, friends of friends, status, whatever. It rarely dawns on you, however, that the trade off isn’t worth it.  Whether it’s a friend, family, or foe; lugging their toxic baggage around crushes your well being.  In spite of how difficult it might be, you need to unload these folks from your life while you are still able.  If you do, then your recovery will be quicker and your journey lighter.  I’ve heard God only sends you baggage we each can handle.  I personally feel like Atlas these days, but as Nietzsche said, “What does not kill me makes me stronger.”  Okay, pile it on the roof, but tie it down like I told you to.  Slainte.