Where is It?

It’s Gotta Be Here Somewhere

By Martha Bolton

Do you realize the average person loses up to six weeks every year looking for things that he or she
has misplaced at work—files, pens, computer disks, the boss.
We lose things at home, too. We misplace our glasses, car keys, slippers, remote control, checkbook,
wallet, hairbrush, pens, and pencils.
When we finally find the missing item, it’s often in the strangest of places. Like when we discover we
put a cucumber in our purse and our cell phone in the vegetable drawer of the refrigerator.
And has this ever happened to you? You’re in the middle of looking for something when you forget
what it was you were looking for. Now, you would think that this would take the stress off finding the lost
item. After all, if you can’t remember what you lost, it stands to reason that you would no longer worry
about having lost it. But that’s not how it works. Forgetting what you’re looking for only makes matters
worse. You stress even more because you know you lost something, and the longer it takes you to find it,
the more valuable you’re sure it was.
When you figure we’re wasting six weeks of our lives looking for articles we lose and work and at
least that much time looking for things we lose at home, maybe we should try to do something about it.
Maybe we could all benefit from signing up for one of those memory seminars. Haven’t you wondered
what goes on at them? Do they serve ginseng-spiked punch and sit around playing Pin the Tail on the
Whatchamacallit?
I saw a helpful product in a catalog recently. It was an electronic locator. It came with four different
pagers that would send a beeping sound to whatever item it was programmed to find. Pretty ingenious. I
bought two sets. One set to use for the four items, and another set to locate the pagers for when I lose
them.
I’m sure you’ve done this, too—gotten into your car, driven off, and totally forgotten that you had set
something on the roof. That’s always exciting, isn’t it? Soda cans, your briefcase, mail, pizza. You don’t
realize it until you’re on the freeway going seventy miles per hour and you see someone passing you
waving their arms frantically. By the time you figure out that those lips being whipped in the wind are
mouthing “Pizza on the roof,” the pepperoni is already sliding down your windshield.
Memory loss isn’t all bad, though. There are some positive things that can come out of it. If you can’t
remember your outstanding bills, you have a lot more spending money. If you can’t recall people’s
names, you have a whole bunch of new friendships to make and enjoy. And if you can’t remember your
embarrassing moments, what’s to keep you from the fun of making more?

Excerpts from Sharing a Laugh. © 2007 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.