I'm starting to collect quite a bit of writing 'stuff ', you know, notebooks, pens, leaflets advertising this and that. I decided last friday I needed a bag for it all, somewhere to keep it all neat and tidy. Previously, I used an attache case, a nice leather one I've had for years but somehow that just isn't 'me' anymore. I can't get my flask in it, and it makes me look 'official'.
Ah, ah, I thought, 'I have a computer shoulder bag in the car, that'll do nicely.' When I got the bag out, I noticed that it was full of work 'stuff ', stuff that well, to be honest, I just do not need anymore, old folders and documents that are out of date. I don't even keep my computer in it and never have. 'I know' says I to myself, 'I need a box to put all that in, then I can use the bag for my scribbling paraphernalia'. (The attache case can be used for something else).
Low and behold, in the car, next to where the bag once sat, was a box. The box was full of more work related tat, which, just like the contents of the bag, was largely redundant.
As I started to go through the stuff in the box and the bag, I got to thinking how reluctant I am to get rid of old things that have no particular use. Yes, I recycle and yes I give stuff to charity, but it seems as though the rest, I keep; in boxes and bags. A quick look around the house proved me right. I have tons of the stuff. And I have loads of boxes and loads of bags, ' a place for everything and everything in it's place' , except that most of it is rubbish and outdated.
On saturday, at my writing group, I won a small bag in the raffle, which stereotypically could be thought of as a young girls toilet bag, as it was pink and came with a mirror, which was also pink. Several comments were made, including the suggestion that I use as it as a pen case.
It got me thinking. I wonder just how many of my attitudes and ideas are outdated. Does my view of who I am and what I do and believe need a spring clean? Am I setting self imposed hurdles to my progress in the form of piles of acquired attitudinal junk? Am I using my boxes and bags for the right reasons? Indeed, do I need them at all?
It's time to start thinking outside the box. In the future, that will be my bag. Sod the cliches.
