i get lost a lot. i am good at many things, but none are related to direction. these days, sign posts on trails sometimes have QR codes on them. i think about that a lot. after us, will aliens find these little shapes and say - this was religious.
in 50 years, will QR codes be completely out-of-date, so young kids are used to seeing the shape but just assume it means something else; like how floppy discs mean save. looking up at us with their brows knit. what do you mean you had to scan it?
i think a lot about how if i had been born even 50 years ago, i'd be dead by now. there are a lot of reasons for that. i can read a map pretty well, but that sense-of-direction thing will really getcha. i usually wayfind by pulling up my phone's compass. there's something so odd about that - about using something like a smartphone to figure out my cardinal direction. to figure out which way is home.
for a long time, i didn't have a smart phone. whenever we went to places that required a QR code, i'd just have to shift uncomfortably, waiting for someone else's page to load. not to sound like an old grump but - these days it feels like half my world is behind scan this or register with your email to sign-in or sign up for our listing or click the link.
i think a lot about the digital detritus we leave behind. about how different the world looks, literally, than in the 90's. how much waste has become things like laptops, chargers, wires. i think about the drones over city; flying in the shape of an advertisement. i think about graves. my grandmother's had a trademark on it.
in the middle of the woods, someone had put up a jesus is risen laminated poster. it had an underwater turtle on it, which i thought was funny. i took a picture for my group chat. he rises from the deep i guess i send them. the signpost was unhelpful - inconclusive arrow, jesus turtle poster. no map. i pulled up my compass, which is to say i took out my phone.
i wonder how much is waste we're making and how much is just making our mark. at some point, all my writing - this post and all the others - will be left, floating around on the internet. it will all outlive everyone who created any of it. every fic and overly-personal recipe and idle drawing and abandoned webcomic and sanctimonious twitter post.
i hope they are all living in the same place. i hope they get along. i hope they never feel alone.
i hope somewhere out there on the internet, someone or something finds something i left and says - oh. so that's how i get home.
