The No-Nonsense Life Lesson a Backpack Can Teach You
What would you do if you were given this life-or-death assignment?
Let’s have a thought experiment, “a hypothetical situation in which a hypothesis, theory, or principle is laid out for the purpose of thinking through its consequences.”
Imagine you are asked to take with you a single backpack to live the rest of your life.
What would you include in that backpack?
Imagine your life depends on living out of a single backpack from now on…
You will live with the consequences of everything you include in and exclude from that backpack.
You will not be allowed to change the content of that bag later on in life, depending on the circumstances.
No way to change your mind or to hoard anything for the future.
You may get sick and even die as a result of your choices.
What would you include in that bag if you were given this life-or-death assignment?
Shoes. Would you take a second pair of shoes, for example? You can but it takes too much space, doesn't it?
Imagine the cost of packing a second pair of shoes. Perhaps you should save that space for something else and rely on your current shoes, as long as they last. You trust your instinct and fate that you’ll be able to procure a second pair when the time comes.
Then you remember the nine pairs of shoes you have in your closet and wonder why you have them.
How about underwear? How many sets? You want to take as few as possible of course. You start to calculate how frequently you would get dirty and how many laundromats you would encounter on your undefined voyage. You debate whether you should take two or three sets.
And then you remember over a dozen sets you have sitting in your drawer and wonder why you have them.
Medicine? What would you take with you? An inhaler if you suffer from asthma for sure. A bottle of aspirin, a small bottle. But do you need your blood pressure medication? If you have diabetes, what would you take, and how much space it would occupy?
Would you take a knife with you? If so, how big it should be? If too small, you can only peel fruits with it. If it’s too big, it would attract attention to itself and start unnecessary confrontations. Would you take a Swiss Army knife with you or something else?
Any books? Would you have the time to read wandering around with a backpack? Should you read anything during your undefined travel? What would be the use of it? As you meditate on the kind of things you’ve read in the past and what you remember from them, you may have to change your decision a few times.
Money?
You can take a few thousand or as many billions as you want (remember, this is a thought experiment). How many do you need to survive and enjoy life? How many do you need to live a meaningful life interacting with others?
Would your life be in peril if people knew that you are carrying a billion dollars on you, for example? What amount would be both useful and safe?
You may be surprised to find out that it’s not an easy decision to make when all you have is what you are carrying on your back.
What about your memories?
Would you take any printed photos with you, mementos, or diaries? Any toys from your childhood? Any items you’ve kept after your mom died five years ago? How about that pearl rosary left to you by your grandmother?
Probably you wouldn’t have too much space for any material gifts; so you realize you need to rank your memories as well as physical objects corresponding to them.
You need to lose some memories to keep some others with you. Your backpack is limited.
What gadgets to pack in?
A telephone for sure. But would you need an iPad or a laptop too? Or a second phone? How many flash drives would you need? Any portable routers or a GPS device? Sattelite uplink hardware? What kind of data storage and communication hardware do you need to live your life out of a backpack?
Your backpack is nothing more or less than a perfect metaphor for your life. You own it and you carry it from cradle to grave.
Be careful what you pack into it since that’s what will be available to you on your journey.
Time and space are limited (for we all die in the end). We need to be selective.
Try to find that sweet spot between too-little-to-enjoy and too-much-to-carry in your “backpack” and you’ll do just fine.
So, what would you include in your backpack?
Ahhhh…..the Camino de Santiago! It doesn’t take long before one realizes that not much at all is needed.