Tag Archives: Rebecca Solnit

Rebecca Solnit on the meanings of lost…

~The light that does not touch us, does not travel the whole distance,
the light that gets lost, gives us the beauty of the world.

Lost really has two disparate meanings. Losing things is about the familiar falling away, getting lost is about the unfamiliar appearing. There are objects and people that disappear from your sight or knowledge or possession; you lose a bracelet, a friend, a key. You will still know where you are…Or you get lost, in which case the world has become larger than your knowledge of it. Either way, there is a loss of control. Imagine yourself streaming through time shedding gloves, umbrellas, wrenches, books, friends, homes, names. This is what the view looks like if you take a rear-facing seat on the train. Looking forward you constantly acquire moments of arrival, moments of realization, moments of discovery. The wind blows your hair back and you are greeted by what you have never seen before. The material falls away in onrushing experience.

Quote and excerpt from A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Rebecca Solnit
Photo courtesy of E. Robinson and C. Robinson, Japan adventure.