Come as you are!
“He who would travel happily must travel light”.
Antoine de Saint Exupéry
COME AS YOU ARE!
So you are going to the CtC conference! Have you already packed?… I wonder what have you packed; I wonder what is it that you need to survive in Italy!?… the designers land… have you got all the accessories, night dresses and ¨crazy¨ outfits that can give account of how creative you are? Have you checked your luggage weight? Do you fill the cheap flight’s Kg. requirements? Have you left space for the goods you may take back home (most of them regarding Italian food?).
Much of the discussions around sustainability deal with the ¨travelling light¨ issue, but…, how many participants are actually packing just what’s necessary to attend a conference…? to share ideas, to reflect, to listen…, to think? How many of us go leaving a light footprint as we move backwards and forwards (from conference to conference) in life…?
Travelling light is an issue that concerns simplicity and it has a sort of ¨karma¨ sense within, meaning conscious or unconsciously every time you travel you carry with you a good deal of thoughts, feelings, unfinished issues, desires, whims, never-ending stories, ghosts and expectations that at times turn into material culture and all those: weight.
Now, the conference is not a gather of pilgrims who in a very ascetic way drift the world trying to get rid of their karma with their inventions and ideas (while fixing the planet), but still, could a spin in the mainstream ways of travelling be given this time? Maybe not out loud, because it is kind of late to organize an European car sharing or a biking crowd which moves towards Turin, but… on a very small, silent, personal scale… would it be something that you can leave behind…?
What if this time you travel just as you are right now, as in those ¨come as you are¨ parties? Would you lack of too much? …Ok maybe you’ll need your laptop and power point presentation… and your rack of USBs, and visit cards… and your camera and your mobile and your I-pod, your mp3 or your minidisk, and…, there we go again. Although, wait, these last accessories the ones regarding music, those yes, are fundamental!
Come as you are, if your life has an excess of luggage… then bring it along –you can’t do otherwise-, but in all cases, bring music, at least in your head, bring joy, smiles, good vibes and then, let us dance as those ancient tribes that gather asking for better times, for peace, for light, for wind and rain to come… and for that, all that we need is you to come: as you are.
Now, go and check your bags.