LOCALITY

I tried on several occasions this week to get lost, and it was much more difficult than I ever anticipated. I feel that getting lost is a much more internal thing rather than external. I can go anywhere in the world and I will never really be lost, because I know that where I am, is where I am. If I am sitting in a corner, I know that that corner is where I am. If I am standing in an unfamiliar forest or neighborhood, I know that that forest or neighborhood is where I am. I am always aware of my surroundings, so therefore, I feel that the act of getting lost has more to do with the way we feel or where we place ourselves mentally and emotionally, than where we place ourselves physically. I can “get lost” in a painting I’m working on, or a song I’m writing.
I can “get lost “ in a book or an interesting film. That painting, or song I’m writing, or book I’m reading, or film I’m viewing becomes my world. Everything else around me stops. I am not concerned with my surrounding or the goings on in them. I am in my own world. I am lost in my own world.
We talked a lot in class last week about “being comfortable being uncomfortable.” I feel that I personally am comfortable being uncomfortable. I know that no matter where I am I will always be myself. When I first started thinking about locality, I thought about my hometown. I thought about the people, the sights, sounds, smell, traditions, and ideas. The more that I thought about it, the more I realized that the things I used to define locality were the things that I always carry with me no matter where I go. I carry the ideas and beliefs I gleaned from the people of my hometown. I carry the memories of the sights and sounds and smell and traditions of my youth with me. Therefore I can never really be lost. I carry my locality with me wherever I go. Home is where the heart is; my home is in my heart. So if getting lost is something I do mentally rather than physically,i cant do so in any locality, even the ones I know best. I can be “lost” in my hometown, my childhood home, in any city or town on the face of this earth. And on the other hand, because I am always aware of my physical surroundings and because I carry my home in my heart, I can also be at home in any city or town on the face of this earth. I can be lost and not lost in the same physical locality. Because of this fact, locality to me is more an idea or feeling, rather than a place on the map.