A lot can be packed into a suitcase

Our 14-year-old grand in Alaska arrived on a surprise visit last week with a bag we could barely hoist up the loft ladder. 

I had a “moment” yesterday, seeing its opened top leaning against the rails — evidence that she was up there. It was just a purple suitcase, but it held things belonging to a life I love. And it lit up my heart. I've said it for years — I'm a sentimental fool. 

So I can feel the devastation of fires in California that burned the contents of all those homes. That's a lot of suitcases. And when you think about it, houses aren't much more than that. Our earthly dwellings and possessions are very temporary — what we pack for the smattering of years we travel through this life. 

I called my cousin in West Hills, with whom I had lost touch. We were tight the year I lived in Pasadena, caring for her centenarian mother. She herself lives up a canyon in a threatened area and has had her suitcases packed and repacked. Can't say what all she had in there, but you can bet it was colorful. That goes for her language at times, too. In the midst of fire crisis, she can't believe how many of her relatives who are “squawking Jesus” voted for President-elect Trump. According to her, he loves only one person — himself.  

I took no offense at her remark. It is something I've been learning — even before discovering a terrific book called, “Unoffendable.” One chapter titled “Ain't You Tired” includes this — “Quit trying to parent the whole world. Quit being shocked when other people don't share your morality. Quit serving as judge and jury in your own mind. Quit thinking you need to discern what others' motives are. And quit rehearsing in your mind what that other person did to you. It's all so exhausting.” 

Not sure if Donald Trump can do anything to change my cousin's opinion — beginning with his inauguration in less than a week — another thing in the national news suitcase. Presidents come and go, too. And aren't we glad they do. No lifelong dictators in this country — in spite of “deep state” rumblings. The older I get the more I value these historical swearing-ins.  

Then there is Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Inauguration Day — this hasn't happened since 1997 when President Clinton took the oath of office in his second term. I was looking up Nat King Cole, having been gifted some music of his. A Grammy Award winner — with over 100 hits on the pop charts — jazz pianist, actor — an all-around talent — and yet in 1956 three Alabama men attempted to kidnap him from his concert. In a car outside the venue police found rifles, a blackjack, and brass knuckles. Cole did not finish the concert, having been knocked from his piano bench and injured. His assailants were charged with intent to murder. Thank God a decade later for Martin Luther King Jr.'s incredible courage and passion for civil rights.

What's in a suitcase? Turns out quite a lot. I'm definitely paying more attention to how I pack.