Smaller Larger

Bigger or smaller? Less is more.

Luggage Revisited

With several decades behind me, years on and off the road, I was thinking about the gear I use for work and travel.
Recalling bits and pieces of a book I read, some years distant, where the main character had a steamer trunk packed with all manner of technical goodies. Science fiction, at the time. While not nearly as full of tech toys as others, I, too, have a steamer trunk-sized case. Rarely use it, anymore. Just the current nature of my travels.
I also have two ”Carry-on” cases, one with wheels, one without. One is newer, slightly more maligned, and the older one is truly vintage, and I would guess, it’s been following me around for many decades.

Smaller Larger

I used a backpack for a spell, and I used a tactical shoulder bag, albeit briefly, as neither “worked” the way I wanted it to. They both performed as advertised, after fashion, just not quite the way I wanted my gear to work.
When Mercury was retrograde, I got what seemed to be bombarded with sales material from various bag manufacturers and other purveyors. Might be ramping up to Xmas, see my Black Friday preview, might be an idle mind, and might be mercurial thoughts. Retrograde mercurial thoughts?
The beauty of what I’ve settled into? There’s a light, minimalist touch, and the look-feel of warm, worn canvas is certainly less aggressive yet equally impressive as it engenders a sense of calm, practiced skills.
So I have two bags, that’s what I’m down to, a big one and small one. The big one can serve as an overnight bag, or I could squeeze a working weekend out of it, if I pack carefully, and I have a running list in my head, so I just leave that bag ready to go.
Big bag serves two-day shows, mostly just in Austin now.

Smaller Larger

What started this diuretic diatribe on luggage size was the idea that maybe the smaller bag was too small. It hold a single i-Tablet, then pens, pencils, notebooks, wires, cords, lipstick(1), short stack of business cards, chargers, a small pendulum, some Feng-Shui coins roped together, a St. Benedict medallion, and a small set of tarot cards. I used to carry a thin, dated, Penguin paperback of Marcus Aurelius, or 101 Zen Stories, but there’s really not enough room, and I do carry digital copies, so there is that.
So the question I wrestled into the word processor? Smaller Larger, as in do I need or want an another intermediary sized bag.
Looking at the pluses and minuses, on a page, though? No.
Simply put, no. Either the little one works, and it has limitations which is a strength, or the big one. Nothing in between is required. I tend to carry the little one almost daily, and use it for the shows, twice a month on San Antonio, and the shop in Austin. Plus, other adventures.
It’s an enforced economy.
Back to the old adage, “Less is more.”

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(1) “Lipstick” is any number of lip balms in a tube. Not really lipstick, but I shared a brand of “warm vanilla honey” with a girlfriend once, and we got to call it “lipstick.” Term stuck.

Previously

NutSac | Carry On | Minimalist
Astrology Go-Bag | Review | Case