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A Farewell to (my) Cable Bags
Many years ago, a young man bought three Muji mesh pouches: white, black and greenish.
Being an Apple fanatic, the man filled the white pouch with cables of the newish Lighting connector. Still, many 30 pin cables were also added to the bag, because well, he had many around. The prize possession of this pouch was a chimera: an Apple micro USB to lightning adapter1.
The mesh bags in questions
Then came the black bag, for which black cables were the natural occupants. Surprisingly, the color of the cables wasn’t really what conditioned their brotherhood. No, this bag was filled with two different yet similarly common connectors: micro and mini-USB.
Lastly, the green bag. This held a special place in the man’s heart. He was actually proud of having to even need a bag for this sort of cables: audio cables. It included everything from adapters to extensions, and even replacement earplugs2.
The man collection grew over the years. He moved countries. Met people. Started a family, and it also grew. This required even more cables. But still, the three pouches remained a useful constant in his life.
Things were good. The man could satisfy all cable requests done under his roof. But then, things started to change. A newcomer cable started to show up. Occasionally at first, a Wifi router here or a smart speaker there. But suddenly, it invaded his domain. The man’s wife’s iPad started to use this new USB-C cable — and then his beloved Mac laptop. The man couldn’t visit the Muji store, so he bought some cheap mesh bags. But his heart was not in it: “I’ll sort it out soon” he said, but it never happened.
Now the time has come for the man to face his bag’s obsolesce. Two new iPhone 15 devices await under the Christmas Tree, and the realization hit him that they’re filled with antiquities.
He won’t be able to use any of the cables in his faithful 3 pouches with his new everyday device.
Yes, there’s his trustee AirPods and his young daughter old iPad. But the time has come to decide: are the bags themselves tied to their contents fate? or is it a time for inner-renewal? Or … should the man just visit Muji again and shut-up about it?
These are the struggles of this post-modern man.
I remember being fascinated by the size and utility of this adapter. Even more by the fact it was from Apple®. Also remember no one in my family understanding my fascination.↩︎
The Shure SE215 were my joy for many years.↩︎