  Mystery
This week: Edited by: Tehanu  
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Not all those who wander are lost. - J.R.R. Tolkein
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is a society where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar: I love not man the less, but nature more. - Lord Byron
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** Image ID #1190359 Unavailable ** Off The Beaten Path ** Image ID #1190359 Unavailable **
A couple of my newsletters have been about treasure hunts and scavenger hunts. A more modern mode of find and seek is geocaching.
To go geocaching properly, you need to own a GPS system and have access to the Internet. If you enjoy finding objects, you could click on a website devoted to geocaching and choose a cache to hunt down. Caches are often found in spots "off the beaten track" - like woodland areas and hiking places. However, some caches are hidden near famous landmarks or unusual locations, like under the sea. Once you've found a description of a cache online that sounds appealing to you, you can set the coordinates on your GPS and go off on an adventure.
The cache itself may not be at the exact coordinates. Oftentimes there's a final clue or you must rummage around the general area. Caches can be found up trees and in piping - they could be stored in ornate boxes, tupperware, and buckets.
What's in a cache, you may ask? The water-proof boxes typically have a journal and a writing utensil plus a small trinket that the finder gets to keep and also replace with another small treasure of his or her own.
If you prefer coordinating (forgive the pun) a cache hunt, you will need: a water-proof box that is distinctly labeled as a geocaching object, a journal, a pencil, a trinket, a GPS system, and access to the on-line world. Geocachers need to keep track of their cache and may have to refurbish the cache if it's been found by geo-muggles (people who know nothing about geocaching).
What's the point of geocaching? Well, you're essentially making and/or solving a mystery. But also, you'll be on an adventure - going to new and interesting places and keeping your brain fresh.
I think geocaching is an excellent subject for a mysterious short story. I know my mind is full of plot ideas – can you think of any pertaining to geocaching? If so, please send me an e-mail and I'll showcase your idea in my next feedback session.
To find out more about geocaching, check out https://www.geocaching.com.
Happy hunting!
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I wonder as I wander
Feedback from my last Mystery Newsletter:
nomlet  :
The universe is a mysterious place if you stop and think about it. But who does that? Thoughtful, curious people are rare treasures, like space rocks, and should be collected and studied.
 When I was younger, I was determined I'd pull a "Thoreau" someday and move into an isolated wood where I could contemplate life at my leisure. I agree that stopping to study life is often a rare activity now - we fall into the hustle and bustle of work and family life and the sensationalism of the news. I wish we all had more time to reflect and consider. Thanks for your lovely thoughts, dear nomlet.
Arthur :
As this is the first week receiving the various newsletters( I'm a new member),I think this is by far the most thought provoking one I've read yet. Who knows it may provide me with some story ideas. I hope that you and the other NL editors keep up the good work. Thanks
Welcome to Writing.com, Arthur ! Thank you for your kind words - and may your noggin be brimming with story ideas! 
Ric The Woolicane :
Great newsletter, I have thought about a lot of these sort of things, along with the old questions of 'if you unscrew you naval does your bum fall off' I suggest a good dose of qi (http://www.qi.com/) to any one into the odd.
Indeed, that is a question for the ages!  Thanks for the link.
faithjourney:
Thanks for the newsletter on oddities. Actually, I've been researching for a story I'm planning to write on the apocolypse - so I've been reflecting on some pretty odd things myself. How can people, even believers, survive the catastrophies of Revelation? Plagues, the sun, moon and stars disappearing, the antichrist - good Lord! Then there's the rapture. What of that? It boggles my mind that one day, all believers will just be gone - no more! Goodness, all this end-time prophesy is mind boggling. Some say it's near. I just hope it doesn't come in my day. Gracious, even the end of the world is odd, mind-boggling, and confusing!
How does that Franklin quote go? Oh yes - "In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes." Well, they might be certain to occur, but death and taxes can be confusing as well! Good luck on your story - it sounds action-packed and mysterious.
THANKFUL SONALI Library Class!  :
Fun to read your "oddities". I've sometimes wondered how each of us is still "me" when we wake up. What if I'm not me anymore when I wake up tomorrow? What if I forget how to type, or don't know my phone number?
It is amazing, isn't it? Although I wouldn't mind waking up as another person for one day. That'd be interesting. But, yeah, dementia and amnesia and so forth - rather fearsome stuff. Knowledge is power and it would be scary to wake up without it.
lulubelle:
I really enjoyed your newsletter about oddities. I think about them a lot while writing. One I had recently was "You see many movies about people being turned into zombies by a chemical. What if that chemical was supposed to be a cure for cancer?"
Thank you for the newletter. It was great!
So the upside to being a zombie is being cancer-free? j/k Keep thinking interesting things! And thanks for writing in to this NL.
Cyanvia
Hmm... I like this newsletter. Intresting topic. In my country, few month ago the price of chickens meat is getting higher and higher and many people protest about it. They decided to boycott againts it but later, I keep seeing people buying MORE chickens meat. To me it's weird, isn't it?
Anyway, that problem already solved but the price of flour is getting higher now. Sigh...
Yeah, in the U.S., gas prices keep going higher, but I feel that credit cards allow many of us to keep spending instead of finding alternative ways to live. I believe we're so used to living the way we do that we feel we simply cannot live without our small luxuries. It's mind-boggling to think that if we changed a few lifestyle choices, the world would be cleaner and better. Good luck with those prices (chicken and flour are pretty necessary items!) and thanks for sharing your thoughts.
IdaLin :
As I'm eating a marshmallow just now, I'm wondering why a corn syrup puff is called that... Corn doesn't grow in the marsh, so fieldmallow would at least make geographical sense.
I think a fieldmallow sounds just as tasty, too! I love finding out how certain words came to be, and upon researching the marshmallow I found that before gelatin was used, the root of a Marshmallow plant was the basis for the original confection. I learn something every day.
four44 :
I've always thought that if we had proof of ghosts existing, it would cause absolute chaos. But the same thing goes if we learned that there is absolutely no way for ghosts to exist. And, on a larger scale, I think the more we learn and discover about our universe, the closer we are getting to the end of the world. I feel like the more knowledge we gain, the worse it is for all of us. People like having the mystery in life, it gives us something to live for. I guess I believe that ignorance really is bliss.
Have you ever seen that commercial where a man is sitting at his computer and message box pops up that says something like: You have reached the end of the Internet. There is no more to see. Go back. Now. I know I would love having that happen to me - I love the idea of inifinite wisdom and knowledge. Of course it won't happen - there'll always be more to learn and discover, and that can be fun, too. Ignorance can be bliss, but I think that curiousity is a large part of human nature.
white_feather:
I thought I was the only one who saw these things happening. Isn't that the true issue, though?
Does everyone feel like, in the end, they are all alone? There is a growing selfishness on the planet. Being "American" used to be about fighting for freedoms from taxes and religion. Quite a few changes happened since, including the freedom to buy the biggest car possible, eat the largest, fattiest hamburger, and smoke and drink as much as we want. Yeah!!
The era we live in is self-satisfying, and any time we are pushed to think about anything but ourselves is a scheme to allow the rich to get richer, and poor poorer.
The "Energy Crisis" was something we all had to consider, and Enron Corp. made good and sure they lied to get so much money out of residents that it led to foreclosures because for no reason at all Enron decided to close down power generators to create demand. The FBI began researching this, and what happened?
Two airplanes hit the World Trade Center buildings 1, 2, 10, and an area in the Pentagon, where we know the research for Enron was being done? Building 10 was FBI's primary research headquarters, along with a section of the Pentagon conveniently placed at the cruise missile (er..plane crash) site. Wait, I'm sorry, debris flew across a large expanse and destroyed building 10, but wasn't there a fire? I'm confused.
And the airplanes were flown by terrorists, yeah. And those terrorists (many found alive and well years later) gave their lives for their religion and country to hurt us. So we should destroy as many of them as we can. We have to change their government because they won't let us have all rights to their resources, no wait. Uhh, they're bad. Yeah, that's it.
Yeah, and to be really secure, we need to take away the people's rights for freedom of speech, press, the right to bear arms, freedom of privacy, and let's see, oh, the allowance to take anyone who disagrees worldwide into a small area who will strip them of their rights and torture them.
And what now with the "Water Crisis", or "Global Warming", or the constant changing "enemy" across the seas?
We can't trust the government to help us band together, when they mean to keep us apart. We need to do it ourselves at the very least by word of mouth.
I think that Martin Sheen would agree with a lot of what you have to say. I, too, believe that 9/11 seemed - cloudy somehow, not like a straight-up terrorist attack. I can't pretend to know more but I do hope that someday our government will be more open with its people. How can we change the government so that happens? How can we break cycles of regimes and anarchy? Can there ever/even be a true democracy?
Thanks for all the feedback - and keep it coming! |
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Mystery: December 05, 2007 Issue [#2103]
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