The Physics of Packing

Here is my packing list:

Here is a giant pile of things I am taking with me to foreign lands:



And here are the square inches of space into which I pack the giant pile:


And I am still far from done...

There will be no night-before-departure hysterics over last-minute packing (as there were in my previous adventure to Ghana) but condensing my past and present and future into three bags is an interesting experiment in space and time. As I work, I remember and imagine, with past and future and present tense all together. And of course the things I consider essential to me here will not be the things I use the most when I am there, no matter how many suggested packing lists I read. Maybe the biggest thing I pack (which is also the thing that takes up the least space), is the knowledge that I just cant bring it all, and that I will survive without whatever I leave behind. Unless I forget the dozen passport photos or my important documents...

More work to be done on this tomorrow (and all of next week), but today is almost finished, and I feel like I have won.

T-10 days...