Three Suitcases

A fun experiment for you. 

Go to your living room.  Sit on your couch, and look around at the various things in your immediate vicinity.  You’ve probably got a TV, a DVD player, maybe an Xbox or a Playstation, a selection of movies, a few books, a nice coffee table or end table with a stack of papers and mail, perhaps some art, a few plants, and some minor knickknacks that just crept in when you weren't looking. Whatever you may think of it, it’s your home.  It’s comfortable.  It’s familiar. It's safe. That couch has seen you cheer Olympic atheletes, cry at sappy romantic movies, and fall asleep to the late, late show.  You found that painting in a bargain bin at the mega mall, and thought it was the most beautiful thing you’d ever seen.  That peace lily on the end table was a gift from your mother when you moved out on your own, something she assured you would be hard to kill.  And this is just the living room.

Now, imagine that one day, someone tells you that you have a job on the other side of the world, and you can only take what you can fit inside three large suitcases.

Commence panic.  Empty the closets.  No… just throw them into the suitcase.  Socks! I don’t have enough socks that match, and WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY DON’T HAVE DEODORANT THERE?  Can I buy deodorant by the case and fit it in my carry-on? Do you think I can fit my Xbox in one of the suitcases? No, it’ll be safe!  I can pad it real good if I wrap it in my dress shirts. Yes… I… fine… I suppose that might wrinkle them, but how else do you propose that I…

Oh.

Yeah.  Three suitcases is not enough to fit a whole life.

And oddly, I think it might be just right.

-Sam