I am now carrying a much smaller handbag than I have for years....

I am now carrying a much smaller handbag than I have for years. I was actually forced to scale down the size of my handbag by not being able to take much weight on my recently repaired shoulder. Over the years I tried to cull down the contents of my large handbags. It never worked. Almost everything I removed went straight back in the bag again. Even a packet of about fifty small, gold-colored safety pins which I seemed to have carried around for years, suddenly seemed essential. Safety pins? What part of me did I think was going to come apart? It wasn’t easy making the transition to the smaller bag, I looked at what had come out of the big handbag I had been carrying. Apart from the safety pins, there was a pair of scissors, a nail file, a rain hat, peppermint lifesavers, a subway map, a flashlight, an umbrella, ten, yes ten, pens, one fluorescent pink highlighter pen with a post it note dispenser at one end of the highlighter, two erasers, three pencils, two notebooks, three packets of Kleenex tissues and a list of everyone in my building’s contact details. I also had my wallet and two small purses for coins. And five packets of hand warmers as my hands get very cold in winter. Each hand warmer lasts for six hours so the likelihood of using more than one packet of hand warmers a day is slim. Twenty- three Ricola cough drops were also in the bag. I don’t cough that often. Why did I think I needed twenty- three cough drops? For that matter I’ve never had to use a flashlight or scissors when I am out in New York City and I have never called any of the other tenants of the building I live in, from outside the house. Ten pens, two pencils and three erasers suggests I might suddenly write a novel while I am out walking, something that is both highly unlikely and impossible. What does all this say about me? I don’t even want to think about that right now.