大象传媒

Good Morning,

It鈥檚 salutary that the new Prime Minster starts the job the day they move house. The transfer of power happens at a dizzying and humbling speed. They鈥檝e haven鈥檛 even unpacked their stuff, and they鈥檙e expected to be running the country.

As I write, removal men are loading the boxed and bubble-wrapped chattels of our lives. The props and material comforts accumulated and stored in a home of 22 years has been sifted and separated 鈥� into two categories: 鈥榙ump鈥� or 鈥榮torage鈥�.

I asked Sam the removal man to leave my desk to the end. 鈥業鈥檝e got a Thought to write. 鈥楽ure. As long as you put me in it,鈥� he says. He seems to have the essential skills for the job: humour, the strength of a weightlifter, and the patient ear of the psychologist.

It is briefly exhilarating, this de-stuffing of stuff. Everything you own going into one 250 square foot container. Maybe the bearable lightness of moving foreshadows some deeper truth that you can鈥檛 take it with you and don鈥檛 need much to get by.

But, for all my 鈥榮trip it all away鈥� pretentions, the sifting of goods and undoing of attachment isn鈥檛 as easy as that. Even the most foolish objects can accrue a meaning that belies their actual worth.

You know you can live without most of it, but it represents a life lived: an expression of a particular aesthetic, an association of a relationship, or moment - and this is ok. Afterall, we are material and spiritual beings with mortal ties and immortal hopes.

鈥榃hat is the value of your contents?鈥� the insurance broker asks me. Well, apart from the old Gibson guitar and my daughter鈥檚 artworks, not much. But then how to calculate the sentimental value of that battered chair 鈥� so comfy 鈥� or my gran鈥檚 tapestry.

During the dismantling we leave this tapestry hanging on the wall. It depicts a couple striding past a signpost that signals two place names - restawhile and offagen. It offers comfort and a gentle instruction: 鈥滽eep moving, hold it lightly.鈥�

We are pilgrims caught between the need to 鈥榬estawhile鈥�, to live somewhere; and to 鈥榦ffagen鈥�, to embrace the next thing 鈥� like a homing bird there is some inner compulsion that鈥檚 always migrating us somewhere.

The sages and prophets have plenty to say about treasures and worldly goods, about where the heart lies, about moths and rust. They encourage us to put our ultimate hope, not in things, but in people and even the God who had nowhere to lay His head.

Jesus instructed his followers to travel light, take nothing for the road except shoes and staff. Not even a bag or a second shirt. I can鈥檛 say I have that kind of faith. But maybe it鈥檚 in the moving on you get what you need for the next bit of the journey.

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