The comedian Brian Regan has a skit about losing luggage at the airport, going to the luggage claim representative, and receiving a little bag of “essentials.” Regan asks (my words, not his exactly), “So, these are the essentials? If I had known that, I wouldn’t have packed all that stuff.” Recently, I landed in Philadelphia for a connecting flight to discover that my next flight was cancelled and that my luggage had already been lost. The representative in the lost luggage office gave me one of those essentials bags for my overnight stay. Whew! Problem solved. So, these are the essentials?
You’re familiar, I suppose, with the expression sine qua non. No doubt you’ve used it in an argument for your high school debate club. Consider the expression and the lost luggage joke to ask yourself what, beyond self-awareness, is essential to your identity.
You’ve packed much into the suitcase of your life, including “nonessentials” that you carry wherever you go.
What are the sine qua nons that make you an identifiable individual?
You’re familiar, I suppose, with the expression sine qua non. No doubt you’ve used it in an argument for your high school debate club. Consider the expression and the lost luggage joke to ask yourself what, beyond self-awareness, is essential to your identity.
You’ve packed much into the suitcase of your life, including “nonessentials” that you carry wherever you go.
What are the sine qua nons that make you an identifiable individual?
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