Where Things Are and Where They Go

Around ten years ago it occurred to me that when I can't find something, it may not be because I forgot where I put it.

What if things simply disappear from my perceived world, only to reemerge later?

Crazy, right?

Time and again I've looked high and low for something I know was somewhere a moment ago because I saw it — but it's not there!

I find it later, after I've stopped looking for it.

I've never mentioned this theory to anyone.

Only today did it occur to me that since I often do my best thinking in the course of putting it down in words on a screen, I might as well explore this idea here.

I've never read much philosophy but I have no doubt there are schools of thought based on this concept of a world created by thought rather than existing independently.

I was struck by something Einstein wrote in 1921: "It was formerly believed that if all material things disappeared from the universe, time and space would be left. According to relativity theory, however, space and time disappear together with the things."

If Schrödinger's cat can be both alive and dead until you open the box to see which it is, then there's no reason my disappearing stuff can't be winking in and out of existence.

Only recently did I change my behavior to be more in accord with this take on the world.

Long story short: When something "disappears" I no longer look for it: instead I consciously live in that liminal time and space between when the thing went missing until I happen on it.

"Use Your Illusion" is not just a classic Gun N' Roses album.