Excess Baggage

I dragged five suitcases upstairs for my wife’s latest run to Goodwill. Mom periodically upgraded luggage over the years. Rejects from my parents were always better than anything I owned. The bags were decades old with primitive or non existent wheels. I used them sparingly as I permanently stash clothes in Virginia at my son’s house and travel light elsewhere to warm weather destinations. I have the same initials as my Mother so the “feminine” pieces were even appropriately monogrammed. My wife was pleased to see the bags go and suggested I could now buy new ones. That set me off. What is the point of purging if we replace the purge? I told her I would be selecting from the seven pieces of luggage still on our storage room shelves. She could not possibly need all seven on any trip we are taking together. As I emptied the luggage tags of our identification information, I was startled to find one still had my Father’s name, title (Vice Chairman), company (Boeing), and an incomplete address (Seattle, Washington). He lived in a different Universe from me, one where the airlines would find him without a street address, zip code, phone number, email, or any other common identifier. Apparently I never even used that suitcase. My wife and I permanently lost all our luggage on a plane transfer in Puerto Rico in the late 1980’s. I wish we had known to use my Dad’s identification tags. The luggage probably would not have disappeared. If it did and was recovered, I could have picked it up from him. And if gone forever, we would at least have a big laugh imagining a disappointed thief shocked that the bigshot victim wore very cheap and incredibly unfashionable clothes.