By Susan Govern
Everyone has had one of those days where you are busy trying to do several things at once. In the course of rushing around you may find, as I often do, that you will set something down and later can’t remember where you put it.
I have had busy days like that and will often catch myself saying out loud “Now where is that (insert here name of misplaced item)?” Then I spend the next several minutes retracing my steps in order to find my phone, or keys, or purse, or…well you name it and I bet I’ve misplaced it.
That happened to me a lot back in late May and early June. We were packing and organizing things that my daughter was going to take with her on her move to Phoenix. Time and time again I would carry something down to the family room to be added to the boxes going west, and in the meantime I would put something down that I meant to keep here or planned to put in a different box. As if by magic…the item that left my hands only a moment before would disappear and the hunt would begin.
After a brief search by retracing my steps I usually would locate the lost item, but sometimes this going in reverse doesn’t always help depending on the situation. If I were to add up hours spent searching for things that have disappeared around here, I would say they would add up to years – not months.
I am completely convinced at times that there is a “worm hole” or a rip in the space-time continuum that is centered in our house. Cue the music from Star Trek and be prepared to go where no person has gone before.
After putting an item in what I believe will be a very safe place, and thinking that by putting it there I will not lose it, I forget all about it until the time comes when I need access to said item. The first thing that usually happens is that I go to the old place where I had kept it (a drawer or closet shelf) only to find it’s no longer there. That’s when I remember I moved it for safe keeping, but for the life of me I cannot recall where I moved it to.
At this point I try to think as logically as possible (Mr. Spock would be proud), but to no avail. The item still remains missing. So I proceed to the next logical step in my search…I start opening every closet and drawer in the entire house – even looking under the bathroom and kitchen sinks (where the item never would have belonged in the first place).
Several years later (or at least it seems that long) I sit down worn out from my going through the house and try to figure out where my search took a wrong turn. At that point I have already used logic and sent up many prayers to St. Anthony (patron Saint of lost items), but am still no closer to finding what I have been looking for. I have, however, located other items that I feel should be placed elsewhere for safe keeping and have moved them to new locations (anyone else see a problem with this line of thinking?).
Giving up on looking for whatever is missing, at least for now, I move on to other things. Inevitably in a few days or weeks I find myself doing something else and not even thinking about the lost item when it suddenly reappears. Usually I stumble across it sitting in plain sight.
How can that be, you may ask, well I have an idea. There is a scientific theory that there are duplicate worlds. So my guess is that a duplicate “me” has somehow decided to place the duplicate “item” from their world where they think it will be safe…and guess where they decided to put it?
Ok, so it’s a pretty lame idea, but I bet its one Mr. Spock would appreciate.
