The terror was so crazy, so real, and I knew I had to deal with it.

—Jack

Lost Amidst the Seas or Stars?

The show is about lost people on a lost island.

—J. J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof (co-creators of Lost)

So, here we are, humanity having survived six years beyond the three zeros of the new millennium, six years beyond 2000. Are we lost?

Is being lost the condition symbolized by Jack’s compass-like tattoo at the top of his left arm, a tattoo which is on vivid display in the first minutes of the pilot episode of Lost? The tattoo is not a complete compass, only a partial compass, perhaps suggesting a compass broken or rendered inoperable. Such meaning seems likely, especially considering the tattoo of spirals and flaming stars, which lie almost completely hidden, tucked on the inside of Jack’s left bicep and elbow? Shirtless, Jack may be a sexy guy, but is he bearing the mark of a human compass no longer able to navigate the seas and stars?

Lost. It’s a great story, one for the ages.

Swept by fate to an island amidst a vast ocean, a solitary island filled with mysterious wonders, generating awe and fear, the ugly and the beautiful, the ridiculous and the sublime. As the survivors tell us the stories of the island, we realize they are actually talking about our world, the modern world situated across the seas, far removed from the island paradise. In these stories, we  …