Old bag, new bag

Just before the pandemic, when we sensed something was in the air, I bought myself a smart new backpack, anticipating that I would sometimes be working from home and would need to carry my laptop to and fro.

I didn’t once use it because we went into lockdown shortly afterwards and I never returned to the office. By the time office work had been reinstated, I had left my job and set out on what I’m doing now.

Meanwhile, the bag took on something of a totemic status. Not only untouched but also somehow untouchable; representative of a different time and place, almost a different era and a different me.

It’s quite a stiff bag and was therefore difficult to stuff into a cupboard, out of sight. Instead, it sat on my bedroom floor, almost of its own volition, visibly waiting to be drafted into service.

I travelled to London yesterday for a meeting about a new project that I’m finally getting going on in my new work life. I needed to bring more than a handbag’s worth of stuff, and so the backpack came with me and was the perfect companion. Happy days.

Sometimes investments that feel like misspent money or effort at one time turn out to be just the right thing at another.

*****

An inspiring postscript:

I wrote this piece on the train home and then got into conversation with my train neighbour, who was passing the journey by learning sign language through a phone app. I asked him whether this was something he needed for his life or work. Not now, he said, but he aims to be inclusive in everything he does, so he was preparing himself for the day when it would be just what was required to support that ambition.

Video: signing of ‘backpack’ from Exeter Deaf Academy