LUGGAGE - Donna Schaper
“Take nothing for your journey with you, except a walking stick.”
The United States is a country born in motion. About 2 % of the population is native to America. The rest of us are like bag ladies. We carry a tattered bag. We came over or up or were dragged. We continue to be a people in motion. The average American moves 11 times in a lifetime. I thought I had moved a lot – and it turns out that I am below average.
I don’t know how you feel about your luggage, but I do know how I feel about mine. I join most people in saying, “I don’t like living out of a suitcase.” No one ever says, “I love moving.” And what about storage units? What are they? Aren’t they places where we pay to put things we can live without?
I also say, as I pack for just about every trip, that I am going to pack really light this time. I never do. And I end up wearing the same three things anyway. I enjoy the back up in my suitcase, you know, the “just-in-case” kinds of clothes.
Motion involves a lot more than just physical motion. Motion requires packing and unpacking. It happens on an internal route as well as the road we take. When we enter an inner journey, we often take things with us. We take the past, our triggerable history of meanings, joys and sufferings. We take along multiple interpretive frameworks. What if I had done something different or taken another train or not gone to that museum? Is this suffering my fault? What could I have done to avoid it? Did I do enough? Or just not the right things?
Jesus gave remarkable advice about what to take on either a physical or spiritual journey. “Take nothing for your journey with you.” The advice is remarkable because no one follows it. Our internal journey requires only a cane but usually we have an umbrella too.
What is an unencumbered journey? Can we leave shame and blame thinking behind? Or does it have to be put in our bag and kept there? Or is our suffering due to all that we think we need but really don’t? Can we take different roads and always find ourselves on a sentimental journey? What’s wrong with packing heavy, Jesus?
Do you really think we can live with fewer props?
Just a question, as I get out my large suitcase for my next trip.
Rev. Dr Donna Schaper is senior minister at Judson Memorial Church, co-founder of New York City New Sanctuary Movement and Bricks and Mortals: RemoveThePews.com. She is the author of 35 books, most recently, I Heart You Francis: Love Letters from a Reluctant Admirer. She also grows a good tomato.
