Thoughts about overweight
I had an intricate journey to India, landing at Mumbai, then domestic flights to Delhi, Pune and Kolkata. The overall stay was 22 days including exhibitions of my art products, lectures and FLY workshops. I arranged my luggage for a long stay, considering the 25 kg limits on international flights, I figured that the heaviest items are my hard-covered books, each weighing around 1 kg, my catalogs and brochures, in the end, my main suitcase was 26 kg. Aditya, my representative in India calls 2 days before my departure to confirm my flights and meetings, ‘hope you are doing fine’ he says and adds, ‘hope you remember that the max weight for domestic flights is 15 kg’.
Well, the truth is that I totally forgot, now the problem is to reduce the overweight by 40%.
Once I pack I usually don t open my suitcase again but in this suitcase I had no choice, 3 books were removed, I remained with elegant pair of shoes and sandals, gave up of some shirts and pants, and still my overweight exceeded the max domestic limit by 5 kg, then I sat and wrote down what is really important, and wrote that if the conclusion would be that everything is important and I can t do without a certain item, I’ll pay the overweight fee.
I checked with Aditya what is the penalty for overweight in domestic flights, it’s about 6$ for 1kg, I was relieved, it doesn’t worth all this effort for reducing my overweight, I’ll pay and that’s it, with this thought I went to sleep. But woke up the next morning with a totally different thought, why pay for things I don’t really need? What if I cope with the Indian rules and carry with me only the strict necessities? It has nothing to do with money but about discipline and marking for myself that I focus on what is important rather than overweight myself. It was still dark outside when I reopened my suitcase, took everything out and was one-man jury, who is in and who remains out, the only criteria was, do I really need it, there is a great difference between things we buy because we think we’ll need them, and what we REALLY need. I removed 2 belts, international adopter (Indian hotels have adopter like sockets), 2 more books, umbrella — though it’s monsoon period, took out the Dead Sea Spa package I bought as a gift but weighted 1.2 kg. the total weight was now 11 kg, I added 2 books and thought it was a great way to start my day.
Then I sat down and wrote about this process, what were my thoughts, reactions to those thoughts and actions. In my artworks, there are layers so I’m accustomed to use this layering technique in my writings as well.
First layer — what exists, basic knowledge
Upcoming travel, suitcase, necessary luggage, nothing complicated
Second layer — new knowledge
Reaction to new knowledge can sometimes change the whole plan, especially in military affairs, this is why intelligence is so important
Third layer — action, what changes
Every action stem from our wish to be safe or feel better, after the action there is a new assessment about the current situation and what needs to be done next
Fourth layer — contemplating the process, conclusions and insights
After this process ‘what exists’ would look different, the basic knowledge expands.
Deepening into those thoughts I asked myself how is it that I spent so much time about the overweight of my luggage but spare no time organizing and reordering the overweight I carry with me every day. Those thoughts appear only in transition, when I move to a new house, I throw many items I never used, books I never read, clothes I haven t wear. With this thought, I started a strict selection of my home accessories, cloths, home décor and all gadgets, do I really need them, and if not why to keep them?
My daughter suggested to move all unnecessary furniture, lamps, clothes and gadgets to storage and I said that a storage is but a procrastination collective place in which items are stored to be thrown at a later time.
I found out that there are items it is difficult to decide, so I have a whole cardboard for those items I call The Undecisive Ministorage because I need to let myself a certain degree of flexibility. Besides that, I got rid of all my heavy furniture or items I don’t use, it feels much lighter.
It all started from my suitcase overweight, thank you Aditya for reminding me.
Be light and have magic in your life
Ted Barr
