Luggage heaven

Do you like helping people with their baggage? I love it.

I'm not talking about the emotional stuff. Obviously if any friend confided a problem to me I'd disengage, leave the cafe and immediately block them on all social channels.

No, I'm talking about large suitcases, of the type you might take on a train to a ski holiday.

If you can help someone who is taking a heavy case onto or off a train, it makes it so much easier for them. Literally, a problem halved. At a stroke, something that was a bit difficult becomes something nice and manageable. I was thinking about this on a recent journey back from the Alps, and did it a few times on the TGV and the Eurostar (see pic, above). Now I feel more confident when guys ask me: "Do you even lift, bro?"

It reminds me of a fable that my sister recounted at a family dinner, about Heaven and Hell.

In both Heaven and Hell, people were seated around a long table laden with the most sumptuous feast you could imagine. Mouthwatering dishes of every variety, from every corner of the earth, were laid out on beautiful plates on white tablecloths.

The only problem, in both Heaven and Hell were that the cutlery was a metre in length. These long knives, forks and spoons made it impossible to feed oneself.  In Hell, this was torture. The ravenous assembled guest struggled desperately to manouever the food into their mouths, but failed desperately and were beginning to starve.

In Heaven, it was a different situation: each guest was using the long cuttlery to feed another guest across the table.

I loved the story and it stuck with me all these years.

Helping people with bags helps make travelling by train a bit more heavenly. As you get off, just look back and see if anyone is coming off with a big bag, and lend a hand.

Of course, if you want to be mischevious and annoy friends once you've helped them (with this or any other small bit of help), then just after they thank you, say:

"My pleasure," but then wink and add with faux modesty: "Not all heroes wear capes..."