Published: May 04, 2008 11:36 pm            

Lee Ward: Being ready for anything is her bag: 5/5/08

Sometimes I wonder why my shoulders hurt ... and then I clean out my purse.

I cleaned out my purse the other day because it looked heavy. I didn’t notice until somebody asked me if it was heavy, because it looked heavy.

Then, I really looked at it and saw that the large, black rectangular faux-leather bag was bulging, and with what, I couldn’t even tell you.

I was in the car and on my way to a meeting and suddenly became embarrassed about my overstuffed purse and decided I wanted to leave some of its contents in the car so it wouldn’t look so ridiculous.

Fortunately, my car is as messy and overcrowded as my purse: I found a large plastic container in the back seat. I should have taken it into the house a long time ago. but it was the perfect size, I thought, to hold the excess items in my purse.

It was startling what I found in there: two sizes and scents of hand sanitizer, a pocketknife, a variety of individually packaged moist towelettes, eyeglass cleaner, two pair of chopsticks, 10 inkpens, two phone cards, a restaurant gift certificate, a note to myself from so long ago I don’t remember whether I remembered to do what the note was reminding me to do and a self-sticking notepad with a note on the top sheet about something I have no recollection of in handwriting I don’t recognize.

Just as startling: I had to stop putting unnecessary items into the plasticware because I ran out of room. I had even more useless stuff in my purse and no place to stash it.

However, weeding it out a little bit did make my purse look better, for the time being.

After the meeting, against my common sense, I poured the contents of the plastic container back into my purse.

The truth is, all that stuff I carry around isn’t useless or I wouldn’t carry it around. It’s just that most of it isn’t required on a daily basis and I feel the need to be prepared, not only in case of crisis in my life but also in case of crisis in the lives of my friends and acquaintances.

What if someone needs a scissors? I’ll come to the rescue and pull out the miniature, orange-handled pair I carry in my purse. What if someone else comes down with a nasty case of diarrhea? I’ll be handy when I whip out the bottle of generic anti-diarrheal medicine. It’s happened before and it can happen again. Or has a button come off? I have the tools, if not the skills, to fix it.

Carrying a full but thoughtfully packed purse is the closest thing to being indispensible, even if it does make your shoulders hurt.

LEE WARD can be reached at lward@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2661.

        

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