Is Being Lost Such A Bad Thing?

A couple of Thanksgivings ago, Nancy invited me over for an after-Thanksgiving party. Now Nancy and I have been friends for a bazillion years and she's lived in the same place for almost as long as I've known her. Same place in The City. So I left with plenty of time to get there. It was a beautiful November day. I couldn't resist. I started shooting. The Bay was a lovely color. And after a solid week or two of gray, rainy skies, the blue was amazing. All the colors that day were especially vivid and I drove and shot.

I'm not sure where I ended up. All I was certain of was that I was somewhere in San Francisco, completely lost. I called Nancy and told her I was lost. "Damn it Karen! Are you shooting??" Well, of course I had to say yes. And with that admission, Nancy sighed, laughed and then gave me directions.

For awhile there I was well-known on Facebook for getting lost, for being lost, wrong freeways, wrong streets, wrong cities. But when there is so much to see, how can you not get lost?


I get lost in movies. I get lost in books. I get lost in my work. I get lost in my thoughts. Is that a such a bad thing?


Now that I have GPS in my phone, I don't get lost much at all anymore when I drive. I must admit though that I sometimes question the directions and second guess my phone and turn the wrong way. But it's usually because I see a building one more block down that I need to shoot. Being lost can be scary, but it can also give you a freedom when least expected, when you look up and you realize that Liam and Baltimore are just parts of a book you're reading or the lights come back on in the movie theater and you're no longer traveling on that train, or you realize you're not really lost. You're just one exit past Westlake Village, but what a great shot you just got.