On Wednesday, I wrote about my adventures with Hide and Seek.
Being “it” was thrilling at first, until you weren’t found. And then panic and fear would set in. Some, spend their whole lives getting lost, soaking in the familiar waters of isolation. It’s a world I don’t understand.
Lyla Lindquist is one of the most insightful writers I know, and she regularly writes at A Different Story. She had a different recollection of getting lost. Recently she wrote about losing her friends on a 3rd grade field trip.
She writes this. “I don’t remember the panic of being lost. And I don’t remember if I set off in search of my friends or froze on the trail waiting for someone to come for me. I do remember the humiliation of being found.”
That last line was striking and so telling of the human condition.
How many of us wander and do everything we can to keep from being found out. We take evasive measures, avoiding friends and family, running from the hounds of heaven that could bring us home?
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| Photo by Visny Krishe |
We are lost. We don’t like it, but the process of being found is something we avoid at all costs.
Lila recalls how she avoided the humiliation. “I plotted how I might sneak back into the classroom unnoticed. I’d stop in the bathroom, wash up and walk in smiling and whistling like nothing had happened.
“And I wondered, at the time, if it were not better to be lost than found. Staying lost, I reasoned, at least one could carry on unseen.”
I’m interested how this plays into things. Is this why people stay lost? Is it because they don’t want to face the music of their own condition? Is the tune too uncomfortable, the chords a reminder of what could have been?
Please, share with a friend if you feel moved.
Read all past issues at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davidrupert
Read all past issues at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davidrupert
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