Where have I been?! Where have you been?!

I was lost for a bit, but I've found my way back. I knew I would.

This is where I've been...


"Thus children are ever ready, when novelty knocks, to desert their dearest ones."

-Peter Pan by James M. Barrie


Freud praised writers for knowing intuitively what analysts studied laboriously...

-The Child That Books Built by Francis Spufford


Delirium: "What's the name for things not being the same always...the thing that lets you know time is happening."

Dream: "Change."

-The Sandman: Brief Lives by Neil Gaiman


There is a big difference between being not knowing where you are and being lost, I think. I could run to my dictionary and be more specific, but I don't think I'll do that now.

I guess not knowing where you are is the more basic idea because it only involves one person, that is, yourself.

Being lost brings to mind someone other than yourself, wondering as to your whereabouts, worrying about your absence, and hoping you find your way.

Being lost is what happens when someone is looking for you but cannot find you.

It is something to muse about. Am I lost, or do I just not know where I am?

While I was registering for my classes the other morning, a poster on the wall of my advisor's office proclaimed that "You must leave where you are...to be where you want to be." (Then it had a picture of some guy climbing a rock. From the looks of his lime-green and hot-pink climbing outfit, he was probably climbing that rock in the very early 90's.)

So poster, let me ask you this: What if "where I want to be" is right here, exactly where I am now? Where's the inspirational poster for that? Surely, not everyone is scrambling madly to get to somewhere else.

In general, I suppose that's good advice for the college student, but what about the advisor? She has to sit in her office day after day staring at this thing. Is she wishing she were somewhere else? Or is it one of those, "It's too late for me, save yourself!" kinda things?

If I ever have any kind of office, I'm going to put up a poster that reads "Do you always believe things just because they're laminated and stuck to a wall?" It will have to have some sort of picture...I'm thinking a picture of me holding a half-eaten turkey leg with a puzzled "Who? Me?" expression on my face.

I'll get right to work on that. Just as soon as I finish the the cardboard sign that I plan to hold as I stand by a freeway off-ramp with all the bums and pan-handlers.

My sign will read, "Doin' just fine without you."

And it will be true. Unless an envious bum smashes a liquor bottle over my head and takes my sign.

There are worse things, I suppose.