{"id":244664,"date":"2025-02-22T22:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-02-22T22:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/22\/lost-causes\/"},"modified":"2025-02-22T22:07:09","modified_gmt":"2025-02-22T22:07:09","slug":"lost-causes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/22\/lost-causes\/","title":{"rendered":"Lost Causes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lost<\/div>


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A couple months ago, a friend of mine lost her phone. The next day, another friend lost his wallet. These things weren\u2019t just misplaced; they didn\u2019t surface the next day. They hadn\u2019t slid out of a pocket and down between the couch cushions only to be found while tidying the house. The phone and wallet disappeared and didn\u2019t come back. They seemed well and truly lost.<\/p>\n

We misplace things all the time. \u201cKeys, phone, wallet,\u201d I repeat as a mantra before I leave the house, the office, the bar, patting my pockets to make sure we\u2019re intact. We\u2019ve all experienced that \u201cOh no, where\u2019s my \u2026\u201d feeling. We\u2019re sure we lost some essential item and are hit with a feeling of doom so intense, it\u2019s almost breathtaking. Then, just as quickly, that exquisite wash of relief when you find that your phone is, in fact, in the pocket of your coat \u2014 false alarm, crisis averted. You are, for a moment, a changed person, a person who glimpsed the horror of having to call the D.M.V., and you got a last-minute reprieve. You\u2019ll keep better track of your stuff from now on. You never want to feel that way again.<\/p>\n

Misplacing stuff and then finding it is everyday nonsense. Losing things is rarer. The fact that two good friends lost important things back-to-back seemed weird, like a particular type of bad luck had zeroed in on my social circle. Someone wise once advised me that when things seem strange or confusing or too symbolically weighty, we might ask ourselves, \u201cHow would I interpret this if it were a dream?\u201d It puts some distance between us and what\u2019s happening. What if I had a dream in which people in my life kept losing their things? How would I interpret that?<\/p>\n

\u201cLose something every day. Accept the fluster \/ of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. \/ The art of losing isn\u2019t hard to master,\u201d Elizabeth Bishop wrote in \u201cOne Art.\u201d The poem begins by discussing the loss of inconsequential things like keys, then moves on to bigger losses: \u201cthree loved houses,\u201d \u201ctwo rivers, a continent,\u201d \u201ceven losing you.\u201d Small losses prepare you for big ones.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n