Less Stuff. Less Fear.

I rode the DART on Wednesday morning. I was carrying my backpack, which typically has in it... everything. Laptop. Webcam. Encrypted data drive. And some cash/checks that I need to deposit at the bank.

While on the DART, a couple young men walked down 2-3 cars of the train and came and sat right around me. Like... two to my left, and one right in front of me. I realize that I grew immediately a little bit cautious.... because I have all this stuff in my backpack that I don't want to get stolen. But then after about a minute... they all walked back down the train and sat somewhere else. Perhaps they were intimidated by my Chinese-ness. "Dude, he's got glasses and a big backpack, but he's Chinese. He's either an engineer or a kung-fu expert... let's get out of here."

But, in later reflection... if I didn't have my backpack on me, and only had, say, $10 in my wallet... I wouldn't have been in fearful. What's the worst that could have happened? They take my $10, then they're gone. I was fearful because I had all this stuff with me which I didn't want taken from me.

As we get rid of more and more stuff from our place (give away, ebay, donate, etc.), it is more and more freeing. Our place would never qualify as a prime target for burglars anyways. If we're ever not home, we've got our laptops and our camera with us. Those are the "oooh, big ticket" items. But besides that... yeah, you could try to steal our TV. Oh wait... no tv. Or take the stereo. Oh wait... that's a CD player boombox with built-in speakers. Or take the gaming system. Oh wait... that's a PS One. Or take the guitar. Oh wait... that's a banged up Sigma from 1992. Hmm... let's see if there's anything in the fridge.

And now, as we pack up our place and really empty out... everything... it's pretty freeing. There wasn't much to take before. But even more so now... if you took everything, well... we were going to donate it anyways.