Things left out

Today, on my bike ride home from work, I passed a white plastic chair. A part of me wanted to stop riding, dismount, and go and experience sitting in that chair in its current location. What if it were a profound experience? I don’t know. I will likely never know.

The chair was situated on the edge of the shoulder of the road. For context, it is a fairly busy road but not with pedestrians, and no public transit - like, no one is waiting for anything on this road. The chair was facing away from the road, towards some rather thick brambles and then forest. I can’t imagine being able to observe anything from that vantage.

I know for sure that the chair was not there yesterday - as I also biked past that spot yesterday, and I have a lot of time to observe the edge of the road while I am peddling up a long hill.

Beyond thinking about what one might observe from that particular chair, it got me thinking about all the things that people leave behind. Like when you see a shoe or a jacket just waiting for its owner to come back. What stories do the people tell of the moment when they left that item? Are the stories exciting - I was running from a bear, and my shoe came off, and I decided to leave it! or perhaps they are uncertain - I thought I had my jacket; maybe I left it at the trailhead or beach, no…I definitely had it when we got fries. Wait, maybe that was the time before. Do people successfully make it back to nab these lost items? Do others acquire them - ah, my new lucky jacket!

I don’t know any of the answers, but I do like thinking about the questions.