This title, The Baggage Handler, has been in my head for many, many years. Originally, I toyed with the idea of writing a fictitious novel about a character who was that person, The Baggage Handler. You know, the one whom loved ones and strangers tell their stories to, even without inviting them to do so. The one who takes on everyone's troubles, who sympathizes, empathizes, shows compassion, gives advice. The one who holds all the hurts and harms, joys and secrets of others yet never gives themselves one iota of space for their own hurts and harms, joys and secrets. I thought it a terrific premise and maybe someday yet, it will be a novel of mine.
As I have wondered the path as a creative and an entrepreneur for many years, there is always one thing I come back to, baggage. Perhaps the Baggage Handler isn't the character for a novel after all, but, an actual artist who creates art for bags? About 25 years ago our children began martial arts classes and as they started to enjoy them my Hubby and I thought it would be good for us as well. We joined the kids in class and were asked to use a black drawstring bag to carry the paraphernalia that goes along with practising martial arts, the tools of the trade as it were.
So, me being me, decided to sew our bags and to be able to tell them apart from all the others in the class, I fabric painted them with an animal we each loved. I was surprised and somewhat chuffed when classmates told me how much they loved the bags and just like that, a little painted bag enterprise was born. It was fun and creative and they brought a smile and some joy to the owners who ordered them. That was my first foray into the entrepreneurial world of art, albeit on a tiny scale. The bag painting ended when the Dojo closed and I never pursued it after that. Over the many years since then, I occasionally think about those bags and once in a while, as I flip through my photos, I'll come across pictures of them and remember how happy it made me feel while I was creating them and then handing them over, personalized, painted and pretty.
Now, back to my as yet unwritten novel, The Baggage Handler. They are the personification of one who literally and one who metaphorically handles baggage. "Emotional" baggage is something we all shlep around and struggle with from time to time. It can be a weight so heavy we may need someone else to help carry it and sort through it, until we are strong enough to pick it up, pack it up and let it go. There are those who require lifelong therapy as the sorting belt never gets their baggage to the correct destination. It travels the route of lost luggage, interminably boarded onto the wrong aircraft, arriving in unwanted destinations, a little or a lot worse for wear, only to be rerouted again, never able to be unpacked. Others may just need big ole shoulders to settle on for a moment or two with just a day of portage, from a rocky shoreline to a quiet, serene beach. There are times when the burden of our own little world or that of the entire world's troubles seem to have us sinking into the metaphorical quicksand without a rope to pull ourselves out, while on other days, we take on the herculean task, like a Marvel Comics Hero, of saving the world and it's populace from positive doom.
It is safe to say that none of us navigate life's waters without experiencing tumultuous storms, fending off what seems like unrelenting waves that keep pounding our shores. Conversely, there are days we sit in ceaseless stillness, stuck-ness, leaving us anchored in limbo, unmoving, without direction. Often we don't have someone to assist in holding up the daunting load we are handed. We hide it away, without ever telling anyone, while at the same time we bear the hardships of others until the whole lot becomes too cumbrous and elephantine in its weightiness. We falter and inevitably we fall, only to find ourselves needing our own Baggage Handler to step in and do the heavy lifting for us.
On the flip side, the Baggage Handler does not always deal in doom, heaviness or lost in space scenarios. Often, we are able to carry our own baggage, happy to have it with us. It is our own stuff, it weirdly has a sense of familiarity no matter where we may be and we can work with its content in our own time and way. Baggage is a part of life, how we deal with it is the challenge.
A Baggage Handler can be a job, a career, a vocation, a talent, an innate ability. The title encompasses the gamut from delivering packages, to shouldering a loved ones grief, to painting and selling actual bags. Today I started a new chapter in the Baggage Handler realm and am thrilled to say I've launched my new store online. Guess what I'm selling? You got it, PAINTED BAGS! These bags are a little different than my fabric painted martial arts bags. They are decorated with my own watercolour paintings and are now available through print-on-demand. The collection includes three different sizes of tote bags and there is also a collection of notebooks. I included the notebooks because they encourage writing and sketching and well, you know, I'm an artist and writer/blogger so it makes sense to me to offer something you can write and sketch and be creative with and maybe, use it as a place to write and konnect with yourself about your own baggage.
I am so excited to be opening my new store, KONNECT WITH KIKI, and starting yet another adventure that konnects us in another way. So here we go folks. My store and my products are up and running and ready to be shared with you. To say I am handling some nervy baggage in launching the store is the proverbial understatement but, I have some incredible people in my life who have always supported myself and my ventures. I am so grateful I can claim them as my Baggage Handlers.
Head on over to my shop and please, get a handle on some of my baggage.
Love Kiki
xoxo
“I wonder how much of what weighs me down is not mine to carry.”
― Aditi
These four animals are fabric paintings I created on our martial arts bags. There were many others but unfortunately, I did not photograph them all. These pictures are from physical photos in a photo album - Circa 1996.
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