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The purse curse: lighten the load
by Valora Starr

10.8.2010
|
Post

Have you seen the Geico Insurance commercial with the gecko and his human boss debating who will pick up the lunch tab? The one where the  gecko is fishing money from a full size wallet bigger than him? Or any of those Capital One commercials with the tag “what’s in your wallet?”

These came to mind when I ran across an article in the Chicago Tribune on purses. The reporter left no compartment unturned. And by this article’s definitions, I was as a haul-a-holic. The nerve. But it was true. And it’s unhealthy.

Recently, I pinched a nerve in my neck, and some time ago I dislocated my shoulder with the backpack that had become my purse (I even had a very tiny purse inside the backpack). This article and those commercials got me thinking about why I and so many of my friends are wrecking our bodies lugging around stuff we rarely look at or use. While we’re working toward Raising Up Healthy Women and Girls.

Why do I carry around a brag book full of pictures stuffed in it of my nieces and nephews when most of those same pictures are on my mobile phone? Why do I carry junk mail and church council minutes and use my purse/backpack to archive every worship bulletin my church as ever printed? I have Sunday School handouts from 2008. Aaaugh!

I can never find my glasses or the spares, and keys are a lost cause.

Look at the results of The Chicago Tribune article:

  • 48 purses weighed on August 24 outside Tribune Tower
  • 6 lbs. average bag weight
  • 5 participants complaining of back pain
  • 8 lbs. heaviest single purse without laptop
  • 20.4 lbs. heaviest total load
  • 2.9 lbs. lightest single purse
  • 9 women claiming to have just cleaned out their purse

I’m going to give up my purse and backpack for Lent. Or maybe make a New Year’s resolution about it, which would be sooner. It might take me ’til them to clean it out.

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