The couple who owned our camper before us added the bumper sticker, "Not all those who wander are lost." This is a line from a poem that Bilbo wrote, found in Tolkien's The Two Towers (the second book in The Lord of the Rings), describing the character of Strider. Also known as Aragorn, Strider appears to be a worn and homeless traveler, but he is really the rightful heir to the throne of a lost line of kings. The line from "The Riddle of Strider" is commonly seen in the camping world, and we took it as a positive sign that our camper came with this message.
We saw what seemed to be an opposing message across the street from us on our recent trip to Seven Points Campground at Raystown Lake. A license plate on the front of a truck had a picture of mountains on it with the words, "Get Lost." There is a double entendre here, of course: it could be advice to wander onto paths untraveled and enjoy the journey, even if you are lost, or it could mean, leave us alone! The former message to enjoy the journey is the same one embraced by our bumper sticker--even though wandering while not necessarily being lost and getting lost seem to be different strategies--and it is the one that we want to live out, even when times get tough.
On the way to Raystown, we chose to go the fastest route, according to our GPS. This took us up and over lots of difficult, mountainous terrain. Like the travelers in The Lord of the Rings, we had mountains to cross and a heavy weight to carry. Like the ring Frodo had around his neck, the closer we got to our destination, the heavier the load seemed to be. As we started to climb the first mountain, we proceeded carefully, coaxing the vehicle as we went, and at some point, we realized that although we had chosen the fastest way per the directions, we had also chosen the most circuitous path. Even though we were not lost, we felt that way during some moments on our trip. After a few gorgeous days on the lake, we decided to take a different route home.
There is just as much wisdom to be found in ungrammatical lines from country songs as there is from Tolkien's writing, and some of these country song lyrics have become our recent mantra: ". . . don't need to go nowhere fast, let's enjoy right here where we're at." The song continues, "Who knows where this road is supposed to lead, we've got plenty of time. As long as you're right here next to me, everything is gonna be alright."
Lost or not, we continue to enjoy our journey together, and we look forward to gathering more stories about wandering from fellow travelers along the way.
With peace and love, Vicki and Dean
