Lighten Up While You Can

“For we brought nothing into this world, and it’s certain we can carry nothing out… St. Paul

He stood naked on the edge of the summit and looked across a black abyss into the bleak countryside of 2010. In the distance a glimmer of light shown through a tunnel carved into a mountain. The landscape was otherwise desolate, uninhabited, a waste land.

He stared into an unfamiliar future, an enigma so incomprehensible that his over-inflated ego could not grasp it. For in reality, the future is a phantom. He shivered in the chill of the vast immensity that lay before him, and into which he must travel. He had no choice but to move on.

About his feet lay baggage that for years he’d hauled around on his journey---scarred, shattered and scattered at the trail’s end. He’d become enslaved by the weight of a burden too heave to tote. So he abandoned it. Backwards he glanced down the long road of 2009, and what he saw made him shudder. Lying strewn in the dust of that dying year was the baggage of fellow sojourners who were also passing in this way, cargo of all sorts and colors, expensive and cheap. Like himself, they’d groaned under the loads of the useless superfluity of The American Dream.

It doesn’t take much of an imagination to realize that 2009 had been a year of ugly realities for most Americans. Just look behind at the rotting detritus that we’ve collectively scattered in the wake of what some have called “progress.” And the carnage is not over yet. There are not enough bags to go around, and the factories work overtime in replenishing these means of toting loads that outstrip needs.

Look over your shoulder…can you see it? The road is littered, layer upon layer, with baggage from our past, suitcases and duffels bulging with the superfluity of merchandise made everywhere but in America. Pasted on them, like miniature Lautrec multi-colored posters from places previously visited, are symbols of Orwellian doublespeak---TARP, Bailout, Too Big to Fail, New Normal, Health Care Reform, Transparency, Bi-partisan Support and the like. They boastfully advertise the promises of change…the kind we can really believe in.

Barely into a new year, maybe it’s a good time to examine the contents of our luggage. Perhaps we can do without some of it. Aphoristically speaking, all new beginnings begin at the end of something. And on every summit we stare into a dark abyss. How can we lighten our load?

Remember youth? We could tote a lot then. In those days my friend Dewey and I would load his jeep, heading for the mountains. Like the Joads from Oklahoma, the jeep bulged with every known convenience for a comfortable camp in the woods. Later, we got into backpacking. We squeezed into a 40 pound backpack enough of life’s necessities for a week on the Appalachian Trail. We never missed the surplus.

When people were cracked out on the running craze, we discovered it was possible to run 20-mile trail segments all but naked, in shorts and a tee, lugging only a 12 once bottle of water. We could then spend the night in a comfortable motel with cold beer at day’s end. Twenty miles proved too easy…it moved to 35, then to 50. It’s amazing how little we really need….or how obsessive we can become!

Which would beg the question: Why carry all this unnecessary paraphernalia through life, straining year after year under the load? We’re tricked, that’s why. Invariably age and the “what-ifs” of life begin to creep under the door. Soon we begin to smell the rancid breath of Fear. Before long this tyrant has teamed up with the advertising community, promising to solve the problem which it itself has created. The problem? Say it with me, “Not Enough!” And we’ve bought into it.

What can we do to lighten the load? Get naked, that’s what. When we cross into a new year, leave some bags…shed everything unnecessary. Then, as William Least Heat-Moon said, we might become energized and “live the real jeopardy of circumstance.”

What can you do without? For those who are dismissive, saying, “Oh, No, enough is never enough” or “what if,” remember…the only way to paradise is in a hearse.

So, as you move on into the future, carry with you one simple bit of wisdom: There are no pockets in a shroud! Buy the ticket, take the ride!

Bud Hearn
January 2, 2010