{"id":1446,"date":"2024-07-12T16:33:51","date_gmt":"2024-07-12T20:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimlife\/?p=1446"},"modified":"2024-07-19T12:45:57","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T16:45:57","slug":"where-was-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimlife\/2024\/07\/where-was-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Was I?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

We all have moments when you start a story or task, get distracted, pause and say, \u201cWhere was I?\u201d\u00a0 Those moments get more frequent with age.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a Terrible Thing to Lose One\u2019s Mind<\/h3>\n Some people remember that verbal stumble by Dan Quayle.\u00a0 it\u2019s worth recalling in this fraught political moment about Joe Biden.\u00a0 Because losing your train of thought or misquoting something is not in itself a sign of decline and senility.<\/p>\n What has this to do with Pilgrim Life, though?<\/p>\n Getting lost or confused happens to all who take up the pilgrim staff, regardless of age.\u00a0 Pilgrims expect it.\u00a0 We even look forward to it, as those occasions often become the most memorable.<\/p>\n

Gothic Rome Lives<\/h3>\n When I first went to Rome in 1997 it was a blizzard of churches and ruins that ran together.\u00a0 But one evening, strolling near the old Ghetto, I turned the wrong way and found myself facing a different baroque church portico bathed in the yellow light of street lamps, with a dozen or more goth youth draped over the steps.\u00a0 They looked at me with mild curiosity, as if thinking, \u201cHow did he get here?\u201d\u00a0 That moment stands out more vividly than many almost 30 years later.<\/p>\n

Where Was I?<\/h3>\n Talking about losing your train of thought.\u00a0 And that story was an example.\u00a0 These come more frequently with age because we have more memories clamoring to be recalled.\u00a0 One reminds me of another, often years and continents apart.\u00a0 Like a library catalogue, they get cross referenced in my subconscious.\u00a0 A sight, a sound, a smell especially, summons a different memory and for a split second I am in two places \u2013 present and past.<\/p>\n

Where Am I?<\/h3>\n Right now in Grand Rapids, but engaged with both past and future.\u00a0 The future is my next stage along the Via Francigena which is three months away.\u00a0 That is not a long time.<\/p>\n The past is rewriting my account of walking from Selma to Montgomery in the autumn of 2019, something I wish to publish this summer.\u00a0 When I do this the journey comes back to me, as I remember a detail left out of the current manuscript, which in turn reminds of another moment, and so it goes.<\/p>\n

I am Everywhere and Nowhere<\/h3>\n That sounds rather mystical, and in a sense it is.\u00a0 That\u2019s what makes those moments powerful.\u00a0 But it is also disconcerting, as George Simenon noticed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The mind can waft back and forth between past and present and future, between Michigan and Alabama and Italy and France, and even South Africa.<\/p>\n In a sense it is like cannabis, which chemically alters the sense of time and place.\u00a0 I used some when it became legal again, remembering (ah, those memories!) what I felt as a teenager.\u00a0 But legal cannabis in edible form is way more potent and I was so affected that there was nothing I could do or think.<\/p>\n

Be Present<\/h3>\n In the end, then, being present in the present, being where you are and knowing it, is best.\u00a0 That could be along a trail in France, or at a desk writing about a walk through Alabama, but to be a pilgrim means being present to where and when you are.<\/p>\n The irony is that sometimes you have to get lost to know you were not lost.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We all have moments when you start a story or task, get distracted, pause and say, \u201cWhere was I?\u201d\u00a0 Those moments get more frequent with age. It\u2019s a Terrible Thing to Lose One\u2019s Mind Some people remember that verbal stumble by Dan Quayle.\u00a0 it\u2019s worth recalling in this fraught political moment about Joe Biden.\u00a0 Because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4842,"featured_media":1328,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhere Was I? Where Was I?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Where Was I, describes getting lost in thought. That happens, especially with time. 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