Everyone loses things. It happens in a moment of distraction. An item is put down temporarily while attending to some other responsibility without storing the location in memory. In the circumstance, the location is also one not typically associated with the item so past experience provides no clue. The item seems to simply disappear or vaporize in programmed self-destruction after a specified period of being lost. Where did it go? When did I last have it? These are questions that come immediately to mind as we try to backtrack to that moment.

A large variety of items go missing every day. After one such personal experience, I went to Lost and Found in large store and was surprised when the clerk opened a ring binder with an extensive listing of recently reported losses. There were house and car keys, glasses, prescription sunglasses, cell-phones and other electronic devices just to mention a few of sufficient value or importance to be reported. Based on the extent of items lost, it was hard to imagine that one could walk through the store without finding something. Clearly, many are lost and few are found.

There are also items of less value never reported missing that would increase the Lost and Not Found statistics. I recently purchased a packet of 20 el cheapo pens I like, to use in my office work. Pens packaged and sold in bulk reflect tacit permission to pull another from the package when one is lost rather than experiencing the inconvenience of searching for it. No problem, do not worry, there are plenty more where that came from. Distractibility and carelessness have no consequence at least as related to the lost item.

So rather than pausing to look for a missing pen, I grabbed another, and another, and so on and so forth, until to my surprise, there was only one left in the package. The well was suddenly almost dry. I was struck suddenly at what a wastrel I had been. I had thoughtlessly bought into the market place concept that goods are disposable rather than to be cared for responsibly by the consumer. I thought also about the number of pocket combs and sunglasses I had also lost over my life, without a thought about how I might prevent future losses. They were all perfectly good and useable before they disappeared.

Angst aside, I paused to ponder how 19 pens could have apparently disappeared. Further, if the numerous other people in the office lost pens at a similar rate, which seems like a reasonable assumption, the environment should simply be littered with pens. Literally, if I needed a pen, I should only have to walk out into the hall and have my choice.

Searching for items requires conscious effort whereas losing them does not. In the busyness of daily life, a lost item, being out of sight soon becomes out of mind. Once out of mind, the item becomes further out of sight. When we stop looking we stop seeing, particularly in those locations where, in distraction, we have put the item and would not normally expect to find it.

I have decided to hold the image of my inexpensive pen in my mind to see what I might find. Lo and behold, I have now recovered several pens from various locations. I have found them on other people’s desks after asking for signatures and forgetting my pen, in client files I have been processing, in pockets of seasonal clothing hanging in my closet, in the washer and dryer, in Mary’s possession or chewed up by a dog after bringing them home to name a few, along with yet to be discovered locations. I have also found other people’s pens and returned them when possible.

I am resolved not to buy any more cheap pens in bulk because of the less than careful habits it engenders. I rely on one good and substantial pen as a valued resource and keep my eye on it, returning it to familiar locations when not in use. So far, so good, I have not misplaced it after the period of time it would take for 19 more pens to disappear into the ether.

© C O P Y R I G H T   2 0 11.  Gary Holdgrafer ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.