Found!

I found my phone.

It was in my laptop bag for two weeks. I always put it in my laptop bag, but there's a special pocket it goes in and it wasn't there. Apparently, when you're looking for something in a bag or a drawer or something like that, you should dump everything out of it and shake it all, like books and stuff. And magazines that you never read. 'Cause that thing you lost might just be trapped in there, between the pages of a magazine you've been carting around for no reason. I turned on the "Find my iPhone" thing as soon as it had enough power. So, there's that.

A person could respond to this in a number of ways, I suppose. Lament the lost time on whatever phone plan they're on. Be angry at oneself for not looking hard enough. I was just glad I found it. And I learned something from it. I felt a deep sense of loss without actually having lost anything, for one. It's good to feel things. But mostly, it built my faith. I have a firm belief that things are never really lost. Unless you see them slip down a drain pipe (that happened to my aunt's cell phone), or you accidentally throw something in the garbage, or leave something on a plane that you'll never return to - even then, it's a long shot.

I also learned about how other people respond to things they've lost. I asked folks (I may have monopolized a conversation or two about my plight) what they would do in my situation, like at what point they give up and call the time of death on the thing. For most people, it's not very long. For some it's half a day, for others, it's two days. Most give up after a week.

One of my favourite things about humankind is our capacity for faith. Faith is hugely unpopular these days - those of us who love it are often derided (often obliquely and always in generalities) for our apparent stupidity. Fuck 'em. I love everything about faith - the very idea of it in the first place and its insistence that we destroy the boundaries of whatever gets in our way. My faith extends to many things: God, that I can endure whatever tough thing I'm going through and come out of it okay, and in people - that they can conquer mountains if they want to. But my faith does not extend to the notion of dematerialization of solid objects.

So, when I lose something, though I hate that I'm stuck, I know that it's somewhere. It didn't just disappear. Yes, things get stolen, but it is surprising how few people these days want someone else's phone. So, when I pray about it (and I do), I start by asking where it is. Because it's somewhere. And then I wait for as long as it takes for an answer.

I feel hugely victorious. Things show up most often when you're not looking for them. I like that. It takes the pressure off. A day after the day I said I was going to give up, I reached into my bag and there it was. It was just there, announcing itself all nonchalant.

And I am so happy.