Stress, Thy Name Is "Moving"!

Yep, it's moving time again. What a wretched thing it is to have to move in and out of an apartment every 3 to 4 months. Why do I do it? I have no idea ... I suppose the real question is: Why do I continue to buy junk while I'm here? Why can't I learn not to buy unnecessary stuff that I will just have to agonize over later - whether to keep it and pay moving costs, or throw it away? I think the Buddhists were on to something when they said that an adherence to material goods was the root of all suffering. Or something like that. I can start to see the benefits of owing just "one robe and one bowl" now.

So anyway, I have enlisted the help of my calligraphy teacher. She is rich and has two houses anyway, so it's not a huge inconvenience for her to take some boxes of mine while I go to Canada for two months. But still ... I realize that I am just forestalling the inevitable. At some point I'm going to move more or less permanently, and I'm going to have to throw away (or maybe sell) a lot of stuff. And packrat that I am, that is going to KILL me!

One of the tough things about being a teacher is that, every semester, the students give you a whole pile of souvenirs and mementos - photo collages, collections of signatures with nice messages, cards and little gifts ... exactly the sort of thing that you really don't need but you just CAN'T bring yourself to throw away. So, what you do is, you lug it around for 4 or 5 years, until you have finally forgotten who was who anyway, and THEN you throw it away. (Don't tell the students that!!) I can tell myself that I will keep all the stuff they gave me this year (they really were a great class this year) but I know that, at some point, in an angry red haze of "moving and packing" frustration, I will throw it all in the trash.

Meanwhile, I have to deal with all the presents I have bought people. Since I am poor, (so very miserably poor) my presents are all mostly cheap crap. But unfortunately, cheap crap takes up just as much space - probably more - as nice stuff. So, I think at least half of my going-home suitcase will be gifts! It's not fair somehow. I suppose that I can always buy clothes to wear when I get home ...

Which brings me to my next point: if you are wondering whether I am bringing you something from Japan, I'm probably not. (Sorry!) And if I *do* have anything for you, just remember that, although it is probably cheap crap, it is cheap crap that took up a lot of valuable space in my luggage. I hope that's some small consolation ...