When packing for a trip like my recent canoe trip, you have to decide what’s important to take along. Funny thing about that, much of what I take along is not used during the trip. So I try to pack minimally and usefully, what’s really important. I always bring more than I use. It’s that hoarding or Supply Officer in me mentality. You never know when you might need a Left Handed SmokeShifter, so you toss it in the bag.
Then we get to the launch site and I dump more stuff out of my bag into a bag I’ll leave behind. Why carry all that stuff in the belly of the canoe. Weighs too much. So you feel a little better that you’ve lightened your load. Proud even. You try to take what’s really important.
When you get back, you start unpacking all that stuff and you snicker at yourself because you didn’t use this gadget or that gadget or these pants or that hat or that lure. Turned out, they weren’t all that important. There were several things you brought along that were very important and you’re glad you had those.
Life is kind of the same way. What’s important today may not seem important tomorrow. What you pack with today may not be what you pack next time. The journey seems to be about what to pack, knowing what’s important, really important, and not that important at all.
I’ve changed the things on my really important list many times I suspect, and probably will do some more. But it’s a good exercise for a human, what’s really important today and will it be so in a week, month or next year.