Day 19: Bags

It turns out that you don't need to be old, wear monochromatic clothing, or even have a shopping cart to be a bag lady. All you need is to receive presents or buy a few things, and after a while, the bags begin to pile up: inside of closets, inside of umbrella stands, inside of empty ceramic pots...even inside of other bags.

The problem with bags is that they're so useful. Depending on their size and durability, they can hold a variety of items and serve multiple functions. They're not like scented candles or bookends. They are infinitely practical. Last week, for example, my class cut up plastic bags to build parachutes. While outside, some of the students ran around using their bags as kites, and others tied bags under their chins like bonnets (both were told to stop). I used a bag to hold the parachutes and another to hold trash. By the end of the day, we actually ran out of bags, and I wished that I had hoarded them better. (I know, a low point for me.)

But this bag of bags on the floor, this Russian doll of practicality, has sat in a side closet for ten months now, untouched, and so it seems that too many bags is possible, that bags are not infinitely useful if they are not used at all. That it's high time that the closets, and the umbrella stands, and the ceramic pots be emptied, and the bags be brought out to the light. They may not have limitless usefulness, but they just might be able to hold my next delivery to Goodwill.