TRAVEL | OCTOBER 21ST, 2010
I’ve been reading Rolf Potts’s book Vagabonding and a quick internet search revealed his latest endeavour comprised an entire six-week round-the-globe trip free of baggage. As in no luggage whatsoever. No fannypack, no manpurse, no Sherpa to haul his gear around. Just a jacket with a lot of pockets. My jaw dropped when I caught up on his journeys over atthe No Baggage website. A wave of jealousy overwhelmed me.
I want to do that — travel luggage free — in no uncertain terms.
Just me on a plane or a train or a road with my own two feet. I probably drooled a little on my keyboard imagining myself in the airport security line. In fact, this image struck a chord that vibrated beyond just my travel aspirations. Lately I’ve been dreaming of less. Not more, not bigger, but simpler. Don’t be mistaken; I’m not interested in self-deprivation. I’m into expunging the unnecessary. To help trim the fat, I’ve forced myself to take the 100 Thing Challenge, I’m reexamining my routines, and I’m editing my apartment as well as my wardrobe.
The philosophy is simple, really: indulge in what you care deeply about and minimise the rest. Do more of what you love and less of what you resent. As Potts so effectively explains in Vagabonding, your journey begins when you say it does. Travel requires you to simplify, to value the experiential over the material. Thus vagabonding begins when you begin to see time as wealth, not when you board a vessel or cross a border. As Laurel Lee would have it, your avocado green furniture set for your freedom. I think it’s a fair trade.
There will always be skeptics and naysayers, but the worst resistance I encounter invariably comes from my own reservations. I’ve struggled my whole life to balance the gearhead in me with the minimalist in me. For example, I want to take my laptop with me when I travel less and less. When I don’t take it, I pine for it. It’s the first thing I rush to when I get home. I can’t wait to process my pictures and edit my videos. Yet when I take my lab with me, I resent my decision the whole time I’m lugging it around. My camera gear may fit in one bag, but it’s heavy. Still, I get a lot of joy from taking pictures and videos. It’s a real dilemma.
Luckily the gearhead and the minimalist aren’t always contradictory. I see increasingly sophisticated technology as a way to simplify. It may seem counterintuitive, but a fancier mobile actually allows me to bring less. An e-reader lets me to own one reading device instead of shelves full of books. The new Apple TV affords me all the movies, music, and TV I can stand without a cable subscription or a DVD player. The challenge here is to know when to stop looking for an all-in-one device and how to resist upgrading with flashy purchases.
The rest of the simplifying process is liberating. I don’t know whether it’s my principals, my current projects, or what, but I don’t carry a purse. I don’t need to carry chapstick, Kleenex, Purell gel, a hairbrush, a book, and crumpled receipts with me everywhere I go. When it’s sunny I wear sunglasses. When it’s rainy I wear a slicker. When it’s chilly I wear a jumper. The rest of the time it’s just my phone, wallet, and keys. Unsurprisingly I don’t wear makeup. I have one backpack. I own two pairs of shoes, and neither of them are high heels. Yet it still feels like too much.
My roommate’s closet is ten times as full, yet I’m still paring mine down because simplicity is a feeling, not a number. Make no mistake, it’s not any easy choice to make. It takes a lot of energy to unlearn the values you’ve been subconsciously taught to prize. The effort pays itself back in agency and experience. You just have to strike that balance between convenience and counterproductive, and determine the difference between practical function and social function for yourself.
Note: the video featured in this article was created for the Scottevest No Baggage Challenge. I mean what I say. If you find yourself feeling the same, you should consider taking the No Baggage Challenge yourself.
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