Interesting Only To Me?

Often I see things that I find interesting. Far too often other people do not. Either I have a healthy dose of weirdness or I lack the communications ability to  help others grasp the same fascination that I do.

This is another one of those.

I am at the gym for my fortnightly workout. I belong to a fairly basic gym. It is a facility of Northwestern University. I like it because  both young  and old workout there.

So here I am getting ready to shower and I notice the “gym bag” the guy a few lockers away is using. It is not a bag at all. It resembles a piece of luggage more than anything else. Hard sided, it stands up and has places for everything. I can see shoes, a towel, and clothes all in neat compartments. For what its  worth the guy on my right seemed in his mid-sixties.

Yes I found this interesting. Why you may ask. Simple answer. Heck if I know.

Perhaps the contrast between this organized, structured, piece of gear and my own simple bag. My bag is a one pocket bag with only a small outside mesh pocket as an extra compartment. I got it free as a hand-out at a baseball game. It is the perfect size for me. I holds everything I need to bring. Yes, I sometimes need to search through it to find what I need.

The contrast is not only in the physical makeup of the two cases but in the life philosophies and styles of the two people. I am comfortable with  simple, low-cost, but effective things. As I approach my mid-fifties and have the wherewithal to have nice things if I want them I have begun to move away from old, worn out and unattractive items. But the simple life, and things, for me.

Even if it were free I would never use the case he used. Having said that I am all for individual freedoms and will defend to the death his right to bring a small suitcase into the gym no matter how it turns its back on several centuries of male gym going tradition.