This class explores what it has meant to people in different places, times, and linguistic traditions to strike out into the unknown; to find themselves lost; to lose themselves; to lose others; to lose hope, but also to find it, or to find in loss the possibility of something new. Even getting lost in something—a book, a task, a hobby, a passion—can paradoxically be a way to find a new part of yourself. As any pilgrim knows, sometimes you have to get lost in order to be found.