Lessing and the Rucksack

Lessing once went on a school camping trip with a rucksack that was far too heavy. He’d packed three jumpers, a full bottle of shampoo, two torches and a book about sharks. By lunchtime on the first day he was walking bent over like an old man.

The teacher didn’t tell him to throw everything away. She just knelt down and said, “Let’s find one thing that can come out.”

They took out the shampoo. Then one torch. His back felt better straight away.

Lessing has thought about that rucksack ever since. In the Clue Club, his job is the Reduce move. Once the others have found all the hidden stress, Lessing finds one rock that can come out of the bag.

His best case was a girl called Zara.

Zara had been late to school almost every day for a month, and when she arrived she was flustered and forgetful. Her teacher was losing patience. The Clue Club looked for clues, and they found a lot.

Her family was moving house, so everything was in boxes. Her grandmother was poorly. She had a new bus route that she wasn’t used to. She’d started a new club on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And her best friend was annoyed with her for missing her party.

When the list was finished, Lessing looked at it and felt tired just reading it.

“That’s loads,” said Pella. “How can we fix all that?”

“We can’t,” said Lessing. “Nobody can. That’s the point.”

You can’t stop a family moving house. You can’t make a grandmother better. Some rocks are too big to come out, at least for now. But that didn’t mean nothing could change.

“Which one could actually get smaller?” Lessing asked.

They went through the list one at a time. The move: no. The grandmother: no. The friend: maybe, but that was between Zara and her friend. The new club: Zara loved it, so that wasn’t really a rock.

Then they got to the bus.

It turned out Zara’s new bus came at seven forty-two, and if she missed it, the next one came at eight ten, which made her late. And she kept missing it because the bus stop had moved and she was never quite sure where to stand.

That was a rock that could come out.

Zara’s dad walked her to the new stop twice, so she knew exactly where to wait. She set an alarm on her phone for seven thirty-five. And her teacher, once she knew, said the first two minutes of registration didn’t matter as much as Zara thought.

Zara still had a lot going on. But she stopped being late, which meant she stopped arriving flustered, which meant she stopped forgetting things, which meant her teacher stopped frowning. One rock out of the bag, and three other things got lighter too.

Here’s what Lessing tells the Clue Club.

When someone is overloaded, don’t try to fix everything. You’ll just end up overloaded too. Look at the whole list and find one thing that can realistically get smaller. Something practical. A timetable. A noisy place. A phone left on all night.

Taking out even one rock makes the whole bag easier to carry.

You can’t take every rock out of the bag, so find one that can really come out.