Baggage

Everyone has baggage. We're all in the airport. We've all been in different places, and we're all going to other places. We take things with us from the places we've been, usually things we think will help us be ourselves and be safe in the new places that we're going to. Sometimes we pack too much, and sometimes we pack too little.

Whatever baggage we have, whether carryon or check-in, is very important to us. We don't want to loose it involuntarily, we don't really want other people rummaging through it, and we DEFINITELY don't want to be found in possession of something those other people deem inappropriate to carry with us.

Sometimes - in reality very much more often than at a standard airport - we find ourselves in possession of baggage that is not really ours. Someone left it and, sometimes unbeknownst to us, sometimes voluntarily, we pick it up because we're doing that person a favor, or we really think it's ours. The trouble with this baggage is that we don't know what is inside. We're unfamiliar with the contents, either because we don't want to take the time to look at them, or we unwittingly trust that that person or period of life wouldn't want to give us inappropriate baggage.

To not know what is in the bags you're carrying is very risky business. That's what causes trouble in the airport, and down the road at new destinations. They used to ask us at check-in "Did you pack your bags yourself? Has anyone else handled your bags?" It's so important to know exactly what's in our bags and to have placed it in there choicefully ourselves. If that's not the case, then the airport is the place to get those bags checked-out and find out what's really in there. This is a safety precaution for ourselves and everyone around us. As long as we know what's in our bags, and understand why it's there, we have a much, much better chance of not blowing ourselves up or injuring those around us by the denial that comes of carrying items we aren't sure about the contents of.

On the other hand, we've all seen homeless people sitting outside a terminal. Their baggage is usually out in the open, piled in a shopping cart or in lots of plastic shopping bags, visible for all to take inventory of if they wanted to stare that long. These people have become paralyzed by the junk that is all they carry with them. Even if someone had a ticket, it would be very difficult to get him on a plane because of the disorderliness of his belongings. Some people live life like this, hanging on to a few dingy things from their past life, unable to move on; immobilized by the gravity and cumbersomeness of their belongings.

As for me, I've been one of those who said sure when someone asked me to watch their bags. I even codependently picked up those bags, and eventually assumed full responsibility for them. Then I got to the security counter and was informed that the bags I'd been carrying, both mine and the other people's, had items that were not safe for me to carry, and would be harmful to those around me. Having put so much energy into carrying these bags, it's been hard to let them go and repack the items that will be helpful on my trip into a more compact load that's easier to carry, and to give the other bags to their rightful owners. There are still some things I'm carrying that security thinks would be better if I didn't...not lethally dangerous, but excessively heavy items that they charge me extra to put on the plane. But I at least know what they are, and have a plan to dispose of them safely.

I need fellow-travelers who are on the same track. The contents of these bags are by no means pristine and perfect, but their owners know what's there and how it got there and what they want to do with it. I just REALLY don't want to get blown up half-way into my flight because someone I'm with didn't take the time look carefully in his bag and missed that time-bomb that he didn't realize was there.