What do you carry with you … to work? to the store? to a friend’s house? I bet you carry more around now than you did 10 years ago.
On any work day, I carry a briefcase with my laptop, notebook and odds and ends like business cards, vitamins, pens, etc as well as a water bottle and a plastic bag with my lunch in it. (They don’t fit in the briefcase – I’ve been shopping for a bigger one.) If I have class that day, I have a bookbag I also carry that has a change of clothes as well as my books … oh and don’t forget the snacks and the novel.
This Washington Post article, Burdens of the Modern Beast, talks about how we are all carrying a lot more around with us. It doesn’t really theorize as to why although through quotes it alludes to the fact that we are all insecure and worried and all of our stuff is our security blanket.
I think we carry lots around with us for two reasons. One, we are too busy. I don’t have time to come home for lunch or go out to lunch, so I carry lunch. I certainly don’t have time to come home between work and school so the change of clothes and the bookbag have to come with me. Two, we are consumers. Can you imagine going 3-4 hours without a bottle of water, a soda or a Starbucks coffee??