Accumulated Baggage

I often bring gifts and trinkets for my relatives when I visit them in Shanghai. This is practically a tradition whose reciprocate manifests when my coffers are refilled at the end of a trip with gifts from my relatives. Gifts are great and all but they invariably lead to the check-in agent at the airport informing me that, yes, there is a limit on the size and weight of luggage one can check in and that, yes, 2187 kilograms is very much over that limit. Silly agents. Don't they realize that it's a cultural imperative that my neutron star of a samsonite suitcase be filled with odds and ends from my relatives?

But the agents are right. Too much stuff carries with it consequences. And since 2005 is ending, it's hard not to draw a parallel between that which will pull my arms out of its sockets when I try to lift it off the carousel and the metaphorical baggage in my own life. It's not bad baggage and, in fact, I realize I'm quite lucky to have life-baggage filled with an assortment of goodies in imitation of my physical baggage. Yet, unfortunately, there are only so many hours in a day and so much space in my life. Inactive hobbies, ambitions, and plans should be discarded to make active ones.

So one resolution for 2006? Start improving things. Pursue fewer interest but obsessively attack the ones I do choose to pursue. And while I'm at it, I should really choose more complementary interests. Fire, alcohol, and cars are not only expensive but just sound really stupid together. But don't think I haven't already thought about performing with fire using alcohol as fuel on top of a car for a parade >)

Happy New Year everyone and best of wishes for another arbitrary 356 days!