Saturday, August 28, 2010

Being Lost


Being Lost

A mist had rolled in after breakfast, so thick it was practically opaque, a silver brume that blurred the horizon between loch and sky and spirited away the fir trees.  It was a day most would no doubt have categorized as bleak, one voted best to be spent inside the atmospheric old hotel with a silver pot of Earl Grey at the ready and a fat Sunday paper within easy reach.  But we had never been able to resist such days, so naturally we were off by mid-morning, hats pulled down low - boots laced up tight.  Narrow as a needle, the road laced itself through the hills above Oban, deeper and deeper into a landscape quite foreign to our eyes and we followed our noses till before very long we were hopelessly, helplessly, deliciously, lost.  We met no one on the serpentine pavement, we had no cell phone, no one on earth knew where we were.  We could have disappeared in a puff of Scottish fog and it would have been days before we were missed.  It was utterly delightful.   After several hours we eventually found ourselves in a town that we knew, where we had a tasty lunch by the sea, later finding our way back to the hotel without any trouble.  I would take nothing for the romantic adventure of being lost in the fog that day.

I thought about that Scottish adventure just last week when I was thumbing through Time magazine and came across one of those lists they are so famous for.  This one concerned itself with the group of children just now starting school for the first time, and all the things that this new “Class of 2014” will never know - things that have been commonplace for most of our lifetimes.  Reading through this list of things so soon to be but a memory, there, just after camera film and landline phones, were two simple words that caused my heart to sink.  “Being Lost”.  I’d never even considered this, but with the universality of smart phones and GPS devices, I could see how this dismaying fact could well be true.  There will soon be no reason to ever be lost, I suppose.  These days, detailed directions are constantly in the palm of one’s hand.  Take a wrong turn and, much like Hal, that dispassionate computer of Mr. Kubrick's film, one’s automobile will coolly point out the error.

Now I realize, and not for the first time, that I may indeed be in the minority, but this sounds perfectly dreadful to me.  To always be connected, answerable, in reach.  To always know where you’re going. To never be truly away, in the middle of nowhere.  To never sit at a crossroads and wonder which way to turn next.
 Unthinkable, to me at least.  
How can one’s spirit of adventure, and the creativity it fosters, flourish in a world devoid of even the possibility of being lost?
If Robert Louis Stevenson had used a GPS to navigate the journey from Edinburgh to Samoa, never once losing the way just a bit, with his curiosity and daring replaced by the cold calmness of certainty, would we have had Treasure Island to read on a snowy night? 
 If Daniel Defoe had used an iPhone to instruct his every footfall across Europe, would Robinson Crusoe have been what it is?  
Middle Earth and Sleepy Hollow, Shangri-La and Oz. 
 How different would these places be had they been dreamed up by authors who were never allowed the enticing possibility of being lost.

Much like poor Gulliver was knitted to the ground by the Lilliputians, I sometimes think that, rather than freeing us up for great things, all this remarkable technology is instead, slowly but surely, lashing us to the earth, hobbling free, individual thought, forbidding adventure, and banishing chance.  For just as “being lost” can often be a wonderful state for the body, it is vital to the heart and the mind.  To let one’s thoughts roam, to work out the answers for oneself - to ponder, to dream - to not know everything at once, all the time.  
To be a bit confounded, a bit lost. 
 Isn’t that how true knowledge is gained? 
 Isn’t that the place where the most wondrous ideas are born?

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The view from the car window the day we were lost....


 Back at the hotel after the fog had lifted....
I told you Wilmont went everywhere with us!


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Note:  I am very honored that this post was named one of the Posts of the Week by Everyday Goddess!

40 comments:

  1. Lucky Wilmont I say.

    Yes I suppose satnav has its uses when one is in a great hurry - but nothing beats the wandering around and discovering places one never knew existed. Lovely post Pamela.

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  2. Mr O is fun to drive with because he is never "lost" and never has been...so we are always on an adventure...or finding a new route...When I am by myself I get a little more nervous tho:) So far we have seen little need for a GPS and the one time I did use it it gave me the wrong dirctions...

    It is interesting to think of all the novels and stories and fairy tales that are about being lost...there are so many!

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  3. Oh, how totally romantic! Yes, getting lost and found and adventuring in-between.

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  4. Once again, I love that I stopped by here...what a thought provoking post! Thank you for speaking so eloquently about one of the ailments of the modern day, for surely I believe it is.

    I too, have been lost in the way you were in your tale...and even more profound for me, I have been lost on a walk in the deep woods with dawg. Eighty acres of fir trees & forest undergrowth holding multitudes of trails. No sun that day so it was impossible to determine the directional path out. So I left it up to dawg to decide, to use her miraculous sniffer (her own particular GPS!) to choose the route that would send us homeward bound.

    We formed an even stronger bond that day... Makes me think on trust. And where we choose to put our faith.

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  5. We have a family story of my California ancestor getting lost. He stayed back from the wagon train, to nurse a friend back to health. As they made their way West together, they got separated and lost from each other. My great, great, great whatever Grandfather kept heading West, and was so lonely he was about to sit down on an old log and cry. At that moment, he heard a rooster, so he knew he had reached civilization. The man he stayed behind with eventually lent him the money he needed, when he found out others were headed to the land office to claim his land!! What goes round comes round

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  6. So delightful to be lost in the mist with a sense of adventure. I loved this. You hit on so many fine points. I try to make time each and every day to just be still and silent and calm my heart. Today was a good day for that. Tomorrow - we'll see.

    The only place we have not been able to find using our GPS system is, are you ready?, our own house. A few friends said they couldn't navigate right to our door, we thought them silly - until we got one and it will not bring us home. Hmmm. Could be an interesting story.

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  7. I’ll get lost no matter what happens. I’m more concerned about texting and phones constantly being used while the person in the flesh next to you is being ignored... kids are addicted to texting and always have the phones going even in movies. How do they know what is going on a round them? really sad.

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  8. Your concerns about the loss of imagination, discovery, new knowlege is a very real one to me. It is something I fear has already happened to some degree. We live in a time where if you have enough wherewithal to afford all the latest and greatest gadgets, tools, and connections, those individualistic traits that lead to great things will disappear. I'm sure of it.

    I read a short story many years ago that has stuck with me ever since. I even wrote one of my early posts about it. It concerns what will eventually happen to society if we allow it! If you're interested, here's the link: http://mellodeemusings.blogspot.com/2009/08/try-to-remember.html I think it might strike a cord with you!

    Whether you read it or not, I completely agree with your concern -- 100%!!

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  9. being lost really is something to savour and enjoy... but, i find being lost in thought, just as enjoyable. so often there is too much pressure and turmoil in our lives that this is our only escape.. :-)

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  10. Well Pamela I agree .. being lost is one of the best parts of travel.. if you don't get lost.. then you haven't really explored!! I got lost in Vienna.. haha.. and chased by a gypsy woman trying to come home with us... strange.. but one of the only memories that is still strong from that city... I also must be one of the few ppl who don't have a satnav.. nor a street directory!! should rectify the last...

    Thanks for sharing your adventure and reminding me of some of mine.. xxx Julie

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  11. As kids head off to school this Fall, many will never have the chance to even think of being lost because they will not be allowed to walk to school....just another little way our kids are insulated from from the world. A bit sad I think.

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  12. This is where it's up to us to be engaged with the younger generation, to share with them the joys of life. Not to berate them, not to just tell them how much better or worse things were, but to draw them in. Take them on adventures, whether physically or via stories. Show them the truth of the thing.

    I have found no better way to learn a place than to simply drive or walk it. I just pick a direction and go, and get lost... and find my way somewhere that eventually leads me home (or wherever I'm headed). Sure, I use maps when I need to, but when I can afford the time (or simply need to), I get lost-- lLost on purpose.

    Even in Texas, as big and open as it is, you will eventually hit another road or landmark. Just make sure you have a full tank of gas.

    Thanks for this. As usual, I thoroughly enjoyed the adventure.

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  13. Don't worry. Even with GPS, cellular phones, TomTom's and the rest you can be 100% certain that 'the font' will join you in getting lost. The big difference is that some folk don't need the excuse of fog to lose their bearin gs.

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  14. I have no trouble getting lost--in thought. Getting lost in a car is another thing...thanks for the thought-provoking post, Pamela!

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  15. It sounds positively delicious.... though I would hate to be lost at sea..... or lost in the middle of Africa. The thought of being safely marooned for a few days ... or weeks without connections fills me with delight.

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  16. I agree with you. There is something wonderful in being lost. Last summer my daughter and I went to Pennsylvania and got lost returning to our B&B one night. I didn't have my cell and her battery was dead,so we drove through the forests in the Brandywine Valley in the pitch black, pierced only by our headlights. I was in heaven. It was deliciously spooky. But my daughter, being raised with streetlights was close to panic. How sad that today's kids won't even realize what they have missed.
    Cenya

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  17. What a thought provoking post, just wonderful and I agree with you. I am so pleased that I dropped in to see you today.

    Nancy

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  18. Well, staying at the Ardanaiseig Hotel you could have been lost even without a fog, Pamela! Although I might never quite relish being lost I can sympathise with the predicament that awaits these young people!

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  19. Sometimes being lost is the only way to get found!
    L.

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  20. Oh yes, being lost... I remember quite a few moments in my travels - especially in Egypt - so lost and with no one knowing where I was, where I felt that I might disappear quietly into the sands.

    Classes started today at the University in which I teach... its a strange time when I have to go on for several minutes in my welcome rant about the students NOT being available during studio time. NO cell phones, NO texting. Some professors allow it???? But I am not one. Being lost in ones creative work is another kind of lost that is important. Constantly wondering who called or wrote an email gets in the way of traveling in the vast spaces of imagination, in my opinion.

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  21. I can see how your being lost turned into an adventure in that very remote and wild part of Scotland.

    I think there is a distinction to be made by being lost with your nearest and dearest and being lost all by yourself.

    That hotel looks wonderful on a very aptly named Loch.
    Awe inspiring!

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  22. Pamela I so enjoyed the questions you raise.. it is good to put yourself in positions such as this.. .. mystery is a good thing...

    .. and of course... I love fog!

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  23. Just popped back to congratulate you on being selected for Everyday Goddess's award as a Post of the Week. And I also meant to say how much I like the picture you've used with this post. Wonderful blue shadows!

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  24. I'll trade a lost day of adventure than mundane on course all day.

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  25. What a truly wonderful post; a great commentary on the disadvantages of technology! kudos!

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  26. Oh I so agree...to never be lost, to have to rely on your own sense of direction (or not!!) would take all the fun out of travelling....

    I was so pleased to see you stayed at Ardanaiseig on Loch Awe..I used to run a guest house just down the road at Ardrisaig..all of Argyll is just beautiful isn't it? xx Kay

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  27. Wonderful food for thought. I think my new midlife adventure will have to include some time for getting lost. And being okay with it. With all this tech at our disposal, the security of not feeling lost can be hard to let go of. But I'm looking forward to it.

    Thanks so much for your brilliant take on the subject, and thanks for making me feel like I was there with you in the fog.

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  28. I agree with you to an extent. I do wish I could just get lost sometime, just for the treasure of discoveries awaiting. However, when it comes to children, I have considered planting some sort of tracking device in the bodies of mine, just for my peace of mind, of course.

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  29. Dear Pamela, I always love seeing the world through your eyes. This was a particularly thought provoking post (agreed with Nancy's Notes). Indeed those wonderful stories and books that relied more on one's imagination and yes, the ability to get lost.

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  30. I love to get lost which is just as well....
    For one minute when I started reading I thought we may have missed each other by a whisker as we were in Scotland two weeks ago. But I see you were there long ago.

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  31. I absolutely agree. And what a lovely depth of writing you have here on your blog.

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  32. I'm glad to see that Wilmont was with you.
    It can be an adventure to get lost, but it feels good to know your way home.

    xo
    Anci

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  33. lovely to have found a kindred spirit in getting lost.

    if not in a hurry to catch an appt. i will often take the road not traveled, particularly when traveling.

    get off the main road, allow yourself the gift of wandering looking for unfound treasures; inspiration, restaurant, friendship....endless possibilities
    debra

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  34. We've discovered some delightful places whilst straying off the beaten track - usually by mistake:) How romantic to be lost in the Scottish mists - the hotel looks wonderful:)

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  35. WT and I make it a point to get lost in the foliage of the Ohio countryside every October. Soon, now.

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  36. Pamela, I love this post, I adore getting lost it's such a great way to discover things!

    If it's any consolation even with an all singing all dancing GPS and a good old fashioned map I still manage to get lost.
    XXX

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  37. Pamela all to wise you are. I too agree. I love nothing more than an adventure & the unexpected. My husband now always has his GPS in hand; in the car & on his bicycle. I don't think I'd trade my world of knowing what it was like before the cell phone, email, voice mail, & the lack of customer service.

    Another wonderful post Pamela x

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  38. A while back, Robert of the Solitary Walker blog did a rather fascinating series of posts on the importance of getting lost every once in a while. Strange, I had never stopped to think of the point your raise here: in the not so distant future, there will be people who do not know what "being lost" means. It is a bracing thought. From what I have seen of friends who use GPS devices regularly, they soon forget how to get anywhere. Even people with a good sense of direction are rendered fairly useless about finding their way around a strange terrain or city. I wonder if the price we pay for never getting lost will be never really knowing where we are?

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  39. Getting lost is one of the best parts of life in my books Pamela. Nothing like an open road, a curious path, a door that beckons you to enter. I agree with you here, some of the best experiences in life come from experiencing the unknown. A few years ago I visited Robert Louis Stevenson home in Samoa and the surrounding area..I will never forget it. It came to mind when were in Edinburgh...it was lovely to read your connection.

    Great post as always, this one hit home.

    Jeanne :)

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  40. I love Oban, and being lost, and fog, and this post.

    xox,
    Susan

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I love to read your comments! Each and every one! Though I'm always reading your comments, I may not respond in the comment section. If you want to write me directly, you may do so at pamela@pamelaterry.net. Thank you for reading!