When are you lost?

T

TLM

Joined
Jan 11, 2000
Messages
2,279
Midday

In various post there has been the words: then I/he/she/they got lost. Fine so far. I have in my mind two possible definitions for "lost".
1. You dont know where you are.

2. You dont know how to get away from where you are.
According to def. one I have been lost quite often. Never so far to def. two which I have really been trying to avoid all these years. Ones effort varies depending which alternative one is trying to avoid. Also once it happens you should act differently, or what do you think!?

No northernlights on daytime.
 
I think your definitions are reasonable. I too have worked very hard at not becoming Ummmmm Number 2 as it were.
smile.gif
I think my fav line about being lost is from The Mountain Men "I have never been lost, I have been powerful confused for a month or two, but I have never been lost".

------------------
Lee

LIfe is too important to be taken seriously. Oscar Wilde
 
Another way I define it is when you've lost your wits, composure, and will to survive...

~B.
 
deleted.

[This message has been edited by jrf (edited 12-26-2000).]
 
I believe it was Daniel Boone who once said, "I've never bee lost, but there was a time that I didn't know my location for a few days". Either he was joking, or he considered Def. 2 to be "lost". I've never been faced by def. 2, and hope I never am.

Howie
 
When you pull the car over and let your wife ask for directions!
 
I prefer definition two, and would debate what constitutes 'knowing where you are' for definition one. Does this mean you know the name of the place, the UTM grid coordinates? Long/Lat? Or merely what planet you are on? That last one has rarely been a problem for me...
smile.gif
But another definition for lost that I would add to your list is this,

"Not knowing how to get to where you were trying to go"

And that I have done once or twice. I've yet to be unable to make it back to where I came from, and have done the "Hmmm.... I wonder where this street goes...". I even spent a few evenings (Seperated by other business) exploring San Antonio's riverwalk. By the end, I knew what was where, and how to go there, but I sure as heck didn't to start with.

And as a finale, if not knowing where you are is lost, then Lewis and Clark spent a great many months lost, as they explored an area of land where few, if any, whitemen had ever seen, and one that they had little clue of what was out there...


Stryver, who learned that the survey markers in Alaska were dropped by helicopter, and if you hike the backcountry, and find one, you are supposed to set it in the earth.

 
I like the definitions!

While I have never felt lost out in the bush, I have lost my truck - once I lost a highway for a while and that's tough to do even for an old guy like me (I'm sure it'll get easier as I get even older). I guess to me "lose" means to forego the use of something.

#2 is harder to define since it may be temporary.
I once picked up and took home some kids whose father had gone hunting in a local "swamp" and been stopped by nightfall. The kids were camped by a salmon creek in grizzly country. The dad knew the way back to camp, but sure wasn't going to make it back until daylight. He even had a cell phone to talk to people at home!
No great emergency, but it must have been difficult for the guy to get a shelter and fire together and quarter a moose with his wife calling every few minutes to yell at him for leaving the kids alone!

Jimbo
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top