I get bored with routine sometimes. I’m not alone. I think it’s safe to say we’ve all experienced that Bill Murray “Groundhog Day” feeling at some time or another. I’ve been known to take random, seemingly roundabout routes to get from A to B just to avoid the tedium of “sameness.” It seems a little nutty, but it can be rewarding. New places, new sights, sounds, experiences, keep me sane and keep me in the present. I think that’s part of the appeal of travel — no matter how local or distant that may be.
So just imagine my enthusiasm and intrigue when my friend Maggie, a Psych grad student introduced me to the idea of "Fugue-ing.” So, it turns out it’s a legitimate psychological disorder:
A Dissociative Fugue is characterized by sudden travel away from home associated with partial or complete memory loss about one’s own identity.
(Kaplan & Sadock’s Synopsis of Psychiatry)
The musical term fugue, refers to a style of composition where a piece opens with one main theme (home), followed by a series of related wandering “voices” based on the the original theme or melody. You get the idea (sans the memory loss of course -- a drag I’m sure).
(Ironically enough, if you try to Google “Fugue-ing,” you get all kinds of musical results for “Fugue in G,” which, if you think about it is its own sort of internet Fugueing. But I digress).
Okay, so the idea is that you or you and your amigos take off from home with the sole purpose of going somewhere you have never been. Not necessarily getting lost, but that could be part of it as well. It really doesn’t matter where you go as long as it’s new, unfamiliar or maybe even (gasp!) out of your comfort zone. Literally. And no, I’m not talking about Gunbarrell or Niwot (though I suppose that would work for the most skittish among us). I suspect that in Boulder, this could begin at a new (soon-to-be hipster) never before frequented dive bar (i.e. Oscars). But I would encourage all of you to not stop there. Cruise through Boulders seediest of areas, it’s swankiest of hoods, all of those hole-in-the-wall Mexican joints where you cant really tell what’s for sale, if anything at all! It really doesn’t matter as long as it’s a new experience. Really, the opportunities for hilarious or awkward or enlightening encounters are endless.
Now, I’m sure there will be those of you who will say it’s bad to view this as a virtue when it's a bona fide disorder for some. Perhaps, but being joyless is pretty bad too.
I love this concept for reasons beyond just keeping me entertained and in the present. I think it may also be appealing to me because sometimes that’s how my mind seems to work: wandering and rambling, spawning constellations of tangents. Or maybe it’s because I used to read Where’s Waldo books and think that it was just so damn swell that he was always wandering around all those assorted far flung locales. Regardless, I think fugue-ing is the bees knees and I’m going to start the worlds very first fugue-ing club right here in beautiful Boulder, Colorado! Yesss!
