Packing like a Pachyderm

I have spent years trying to get my travel packing down to the smallest practical size and amount. My proudest achievement in this regard was spending a month travelling throughout Cuba carrying only a small day pack. Pride, I once read somewhere, goeth before a fall. (yes, I know it's actually

Pride Goes Before Destruction,
                                         a Haughty Spirit Before a Fall.
(Proverbs; the Bible).

Consider me, then, a fallen woman.

I laid out options for 6 weeks of travel on a boat and was aghast at how much there was. Do I really need to take so much stuff? My Mom then told me she laid out her options pertaining to the activities we will encounter so I thought, Mom always knows best, I'll give it a try.

So, there are clothes for a nice meal out, clothes for wandering around cities (museums and such), clothes for wandering around towns (markets and such), clothes for exercising, clothes for sleeping, and clothes for schlepping around in our cabin so that if someone came in, we would not be caught at 4pm in our clothes for sleeping. Clothes for hot weather and clothes for cool weather and clothes for rain.

And then there are the shoes. Shoes for the going out clothes, shoes for stomping around, shoes for exercising, shoes for wandering beaches with coral reefs and shoes for schlepping. The only activity I don't seem to need footwear for is sleeping!

A hat. Scarves. Sarong. Knickers and socks and bras.

Well, that didn't help one bit. In fact, even more vestments got added to the monstrous pile!

This is virgin territory for me. I don't have the perfect black skirt and lots of silky or spangly or elegant tops. I have a cupboard full of decades-old casual skirts and cheap tee-shirts, so there must be a decent dress or two added or mother will be embarrassed (not really, but perhaps yes really). I won't have to carry everything around with me all the time as I would for my usual trips. And it is for more than 6 weeks in a fairly wide variety of climates and environments.

So, I closed my judgement and threw everything into the case I have selected. And it all fit. And there's even room for a bottle of wine! So I think I will align myself more with the words of Renaissance philosopher Michel de Montaigne instead of those doom and gloom words of the Bible and feel:

One May be Humble Out of Pride.