Travelling light

I once aspired to be a turtle: to have so little 'stuff'' that I'd be able to carry all my belongings on my back. How did I come to be the owner of so many things?

I have a lot of 'good stuff' that I can't bear to throw away or give away. Many of these 'good stuff' are classic books that have shaped my mind and influenced the way I think. They have mostly been sitting in a storage space for the past 11 years. It's paper are turning yellow some are already brownish.

Then, there are stuffs that have sentimental values, such as old photos, love letters, and diaries. The digital age actually made my 'turtle aspiration' a possibility. Many books are available in electronic form. I have completed the digitization of the precious baby photos. Still to be digitized are old letters, diaries, and pre-baby photos. One external hard drive would suffice to contain all that. And all these, if I choose to post it on internet sites like flickr, blogspot or personal website, I don't even have to have a memory device.

I sometime imagine, if i can only bring a small carry-on-full of 'stuff'' and leave the rest behind without hope of getting it back, what will I choose to bring? I would pack my hard drive, some of my most comfortable clothes, my hand phone with all my recent contacts, my little 22-year-old address book with my old c0ntacts, and of course the important document folder.