I'm in the midst of packing for my move West, and as always it is a depressing affair. It's a fallacy to think that we can live every day as if it were our last (that principle works better over broader stretches of time), but if it were someone's last day, they certainly wouldn't choose to spend it packing.

The cost of shipping my things cross-country seems to bottom out at about $1.00 a pound, so everything I'm considering packing is being assessed for its value-to-weight ratio. The one benefit of moving is that it forces a packrat like me to toss a bunch of stuff that I really don't need anymore. It lightens the load, both on my movers and my soul.