Column: Possessions make you immobile

Every relocation involves the monstrous chore of packing, getting everything ready to send, and then ultimately unpacking it all again at its destination. But that’s not even the worst of it. The most trying task when moving to a different country is playing triage – deciding which things are worth salvaging for the future, and which can be left behind as a lost cause. It’s a tough decision, one that you postpone until the last possible moment before the move. The imminent deadline then forces you to cut knot after Gordian knot, only to have plenty of regrets later due to all the items of sentimental and other value that you put out with the bulky waste collection after all.

In the 1980s, German/English sociologist Kurt Martin was teaching at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. He was an old man, very well-respected, and he continued to inspire new generations of students until very late in his life. And how could one expect otherwise? Kurt Martin experienced first-hand how the German emperor was brought down by an uprising in 1918, and he later became one of the founding fathers of Development Economics. 

Professor Martin had no fixed place of residence – he stayed either in rented rooms or in hotels. However, many of his friends (on both sides of the Atlantic ocean) did always have starched shirts and ironed trousers of his hanging in their wardrobes. When asked why, Kurt Martin would explain: ‘Possessions make you immobile’.

Consider this carefully, international researcher, when you are about to sign that contract in a furniture store.

The author, Han van der Horst, works at Nuffic's Communication Directorate. His publications include The low Sky. Understanding the Dutch.