When settlers of old were headed out to the west coast they had to carefully choose which items would be worth their weight while journeying across the country. Oxen could pull a wagon weighing about two thousand pounds… so one pipe organ or food for your family. Choices like that.
Our journey is quite different. For one, livestock will not be our primary form of conveyance — though we certainly hope there is livestock involved in some specific instances (did you know that Mongolia has more horses than people?). Anyway, we will not be in covered wagons pulled by oxen. Our family will be traveling by the proverbial “trains, planes, and automobiles” for the most part. In between these modes of transportation, we will be carrying our stuff. We have a very strict rule in our family (okay, Chris has a very strict rule in our family) that you must be able to carry your own load… over uneven ground… for at least a mile… with your hands free. He means with backpacks, but he couldn’t just come out and say it that way, could he?
No rolly things, no extra bags. One backpack each. So we have. . . five backpacks. Five. Backpacks. Get it?
We don’t really have a two-thousand-pound allotment. We can allow about forty pounds per adult, and about ten pounds per kid, minus the weight of the backpacks themselves. This gives us about one hundred pounds with which to cover our needs for a trip in multiple climates, with differing levels of formality, and a variety of activities.
So what is worth carrying on your back at all times? Did you know that five passports together weigh half a pound? Four pairs of socks weigh a pound? A karate uniform and belt weighs about four pounds (when not drenched with sweat).
We started with the basics: versatile clothing with layering options, kindles instead of paper books, two laptops to share, a deck of cards, one tube of toothpaste — five toothbrushes, etc. Holly — for reasons Chris will never understand — is bringing a sketch pad, colored pencils, ten pairs of earrings, and more than one swimsuit. Chris — equally confoundingly — is bringing a headlamp, paracord, carabiners, and hemostatic bandages. The boys will be bringing a soccer ball and focus mitts.
In all cases, the process of whittling down our possessions until they fit into five backpacks has required a kind of thinking and reflection that we have found troublingly absent over the past twenty years of acquisition. Up until now, we haven’t confronted the idea of having to carry our possessions everywhere (weight has never seemed so important). Now, while looking at some of the things that we possess, it is hard not to admit that we allowed them to enter our sphere without giving them the consideration that they deserved.
Whether you are living out of a backpack, a studio apartment, or a three bedroom townhouse, everything you own places some small burden on you. For many of these things — such as a work of art created by a loved one, your parents’ wedding photo, or even just your most comfortable pair of jeans — the cost is well worth it. For other things, well, there are many worthy charities that would love your donations.