A Field Guide to Getting Lost

This ode to losing yourself grabbed me by the hand and never let me go. I loved being invited into Solnit’s universe, which is so original and contemplative.

Her meandering associations about wandering and the importance of embracing the unknown are themes at the heart of what drives my passion for adventure and for pivoting to try new things. In this philosophical book of essays, Solnit explores why ramblings of the body incite musings of thought as she traverses landscape and life. 

I love the idea that part of how we understand the world is the willingness not to know where we are going or to have the map fully charted beforehand–in effect, the willingness to become lost. Without becoming lost, all our worlds become algorithms with predetermined results.

I found Solnit’s argument that we have increasingly programmed our children (and selves) and no longer risk the freedom to roam and get lost (all in the name of safety) a powerful and compelling metaphor for the tradeoffs we have made in our society.

That people are increasingly siloed and we don’t communicate… show more.

Feeling lost as a writer—or as a person? Good! Instead of having an anxiety attack, it helps to reimagine that feeling as a kind of diving board into the deep end of transformation. Solnit: “Love, wisdom, grace, inspiration—how do you go about finding these things that are in some ways about extending the boundaries of the self into unknown territory, about becoming someone else?” Which is all a fancy way of saying: It’s our job to be lost. Solnit inspired the line in my book, “If you suddenly feel like you’re walking in the dark, then you’re in… show more.