I’ve always enjoyed wandering and have seen it as an additive element to life. Today, however, after listening to Rebecca Solnit’s A Field Guide to Getting Lost while driving through the desert, I heard something different. She referenced what I understood as the Buddhist notion of “unbeing,” a state that comes from perpetually wandering and eventually results in both isolation and disconnection. It’s very different than the notion of “non-being,” which is one of the four desirable noble truths. Perhaps I misunderstood, but it sent a chill down my spine. Clearly, there is a time to wander but also a time to settle.
Stephen Shore captures the notion of place so well, showing us locations we’ve never been to and might want to wander, as well as those that are super familiar, like New York or Los Angeles, but from a different perspective. The image of a man in a hotel room in his work Room 125, Westbank Motel, Idaho Falls, Idaho, July 18,1973 (1973) speaks volumes about what it feels like to be somewhere temporarily.
