The Island Journal

I am not usually a big joiner as previously stated, but in this instance I made an exception. Geocaching is like a global scavenger hunt with thousands of participants looking for hidden caches of items others who are playing the game have left. A person connects to Geocaching . Com and looks at a list of caches near them, writes down or downloads the GPS coordinates, and follows the bread crumbs to within 10 to 30 feet of the cache and the the person looks for it. It’s almost like hide and seek on a grand scale, a game I was particularly fond of in my youth.

There are a couple of thoughts that have been swirling in the quivering gray mass betwixt my ears that I thought I’d share with my readership. First off, treasures left behind in a Geocache are usually not treasures at all but what most would term “junk”. I don’t see it that way. When you were a child, I would hazard a bet that you had a small box, possibly tucked neatly under your bed or behind your dresser that held all of those baubles that you held most dear. If someone one were to find your precious stash of meaningful keepsakes, a toy ring, tin whistle, matchbox car, a colorful marble… what would they think? Maybe that they’d stumbled on a box of junk? You know and I know, it’s not junk but wondrous and meaningful items of great significance. Inside a cache, one might find a plastic bug or a toy racecar, possibly a plastic penguin, or a toy soldier. The person who left these items found them to be significant in some way and so that significance follows the item to it’s next owner. The point I’m trying to make is… what is trash and what is treasure? Who decides?

I have decided not to take something from a cache unless I find it meaningful to do so. As I usually won’t part with the things that are meaningful to me (call it greed), I have decided to put something of myself into caches instead. I am on a quest to make a token that will show that I was there and maybe give someone a grin or two. I imagine someone finding what I’ve left and saying, “Hey! I’ve got a Boomchit!” or “Wow, look at this!” and having a joyful experience. I know even if I left a toy car or a plastic insect, someone would find it significant enough to take it and move it along but I would rather more of an impact and really I wouldn’t know if I found it again if it were “my bug” or “my car”. It’s not unique enough for my liking. My friend Sarah uses ninjas… very her and rather unique. My friend Andy has a thing for penguins and I think that’s what he’s going to start leaving. Because of my Internet moniker of “Captain Jones” and my website being the Island On The Web, I thought maybe something pirate-ish. I thought about something with bombs and quill pens because of the other alias of BoomPoet. That’s when I decided to try out using polymer clay to mint my own coins…. trust me it didn’t work. While interesting in theory, it just didn’t work out.

Now I’m on a mission. I’m seeking something that’s uniquely me to leave behind as evidence of my passing. Those who don’t know me might think that I’m putting to much thought into this, but those who do would say it’s a normal level of interest and consideration. Hey, it’s better to think of something pleasant that to stress over things that are not.

Tags: geocaching, technology, travel

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 at 6:57 am and is filed under Informative, rant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.