https://ursuppe.dk/events/91-plenty/
Cinnamon
It happened gradually and you started
To detect it
You grew shabbier and shabbier
This shabbiness was not the vain shabbiness of vintage style
Of carefully curated second-hand garments
The roughened nostalgia of temporal oblivion
It was the shabbiness of Thule, Ortlieb and Freitag
Of bicycle courier bags gone mainstream
That is the ultimate shabbiness of utilitarian ethics
Missing the glamour of the public realm
Northern efficiency aesthetics as the minima
Of demonstrable desirability
Everything on your back
Carting the means of production like a privilege
“Your day, your story!”
The day backpack and
The desire to be contained
Inside them all
Things that make the public realm appear
An inconvenience or incidental
For example: laptop, refillable drink bottle, ebooks on cultural theory and self-help, facial wipes, spare pair of underpants, portable battery pack for smartphone, keys to flat and bike, Tupperware container, mask, tissues, sweatshirt, wallet with a few different credit cards, ID from a country you aren’t in, earphones, hard-drive, hand sanitiser, bag of nuts, chargers
All were possessions
Minimal possessions
Used to distinguish you
At least nominally
You are flexible and mobile
Connected, multilingual, worldly
You tried not to fly too much
You still remembered being flattered
To go regularly to the airport
Compare airline experiences
When you flew lowcost you were doing jobs
You got used to distinguish yourself from tourists
Still
Like packhorses you were carting
The means of production
Trollies in streets, markets and airports
Showed that you needed
Your belongings close
For the threat of theft
And that you wouldn’t be yourself without them
“Don’t leave your belongings unattended
At any point during your journey.
Keep your bags zipped and keep your phone
Wallet and purse out of sight and valuables secure.”
Because everything was owned
Everyone was also a thing
The ones who left things outside
Were the ones who lived out there on a limb
The ones who owned nothing
And the ones who could afford to lose everything
Locked it all up in cases cars houses insurance packs stocks
The containers were never enough
One day while waiting
For your righteousness to be confirmed
Hold what you don’t have and get rid of it
—Eleanor Ivory Weber
