Your Soul in Your Pocket

There are several websites out there now devoted to something called ‘Every Day Carry’ or EDC. The idea is simple- a nice plain photo (usually of objects artfully arranged on a bare surface) of the things people carry in their pockets or bags every day like cell phones, keys, folding knives, fountain pens… For gadget geeks it’s fun to see the different kinds of mini flashlights, Leatherman tools, or small cameras (for example) that are available. For the elite there are those who carry three kinds of Montegrappa pens, Panamera car keys, Schofield pocket flashlight, a Vertu cell phone. And for the more aggressive EDC fans there are those who (supposedly) carry pistols, scary knives, custom steel saps, mace, brass knuckles or other weapons of mini destruction to protect them from their day.

But taking a mental step or two back, think about the concept on a larger screen: the more interesting thing about this is what do we carry psychically every day throughout our lives? What unshakable loves, triumphs or never ending guilt, what secrets we would never tell a soul although the burden of them constantly weighs us down? What dark or light memories that no matter how much we try to erase or preserve them, dictate their own terms? The novelist Tim O’Brien wrote a famous short story about the Vietnam war entitled “The Things They Carried” about a group of soldiers and what they carried each day into combat in their backpacks.

What is your ‘every day carry’ into the hours of your life, physical AND otherwise? How often do we choose the things we ‘carry’ and how often do they say whether we like it or not, they will be along for the ride.