Lost and Found ... and Lost

BY NICK CHURCHOUSE

"The time has come," the Walrus said, "to talk of many things."

If Lane had not branded me a wookie in the early days of The Lost Boys, I'd have liked to be branded a Walrus. They sound wise, have enormous tusks, and body slam each other when grumpy. That'd be the way to live.

But this Walrus' days are numbered. The Lost Boys are off to see the wizard.

Some of you have mentioned it's time. Some of you have said it's long overdue. Some of you can't possibly imagine a world without The Lost Boys. Whichever your category, it's been enjoyable and enlightening to have your feedback, comments and cut-throat criticisms over the past two years.

I'm sad to sign off, but leaving is always the hardest part. It takes a strong person (and in this case a fluffy one) to stand up and walk away.

I just want to come back on these overripe comments that we are no longer Lost and that is reason enough to dropkick the blog into Never Never Land.

Not so, dear friends, not so.

We defined our style of Lost early on in 2008 - the missing girlfriends, the lacklustre approach to retirement savings, the absent investment portfolio, the wayward career aspirations. All these things were true to varying degrees for Nick and Lane, and so we branded ourselves as The Bumbling Morons of Life. (It all sounds a bit Monty Python, but we're not THAT funny.)

Now we look back on the trials and tribulations of the past two years and see some fabulous ups and downs, wine and women, adventures and journeys. With femmes firmly on our arms, better jobs, more responsibility in life, we are now branded Found.

It doesn't feel that way. Much like we are only as young as we feel (plus seven in Lane's case), you are only as lost or as found as you let yourself be.

There's been some fairly chronic Lost Folk in the readership of this blog - as I have discovered through personal emails, telling comments, and notes to the Lost Boys mailbox. I've loved having each and every one of you sign on and share. Thanks, it's made me feel less idiotic and odd.

There have been some fairly severe critics on the blog too, and you have delighted me in as many ways as you have outraged me. Armed with a newly-acquired rhino hide, I am now acclimatised to the most personal and cutting jibes, and I have learned a few things along the way. Thanks, you've made me think about it all.

But back to that Lost thing, before I get all teary-eyed. I hope we'll stay somewhat lost, and somewhat found, for many years to come. Without a little misguided meandering, how would we ever stumble across those wonderful day-to-day epiphanies The Lost Boys has harped on about? Without being lost in the first place, we'd never actually get anywhere.

Nothing worse than those perfect pedants you meet. I far prefer the rambunctious randoms, the halfway-finished adventurers, the less-than-ideal idealists, and the hypocritical zealots.

Give me a world filled with disparate diatribes, and we can discover the wonders and whimsies that make us human, and spectacularly spectacular with it.

I hope you are a little lost in yourself too. Just don't take it too serious.

Nick.

- © Fairfax NZ News