The Locksmithing Institute of Ocean Beach, San Francisco, CA, May 2006
Students where taught how to find their missing keys as opposed to learning how to make a new key or pick a lock as was taught in previous lessons. Special thanks to Chris Woodcock for taking the photographs. More details below:
The Locksmithing Institute of Ocean Beach
Lesson #4: Lost Keys
In Lesson #4 of The Locksmithing Institute students will be instructed in practical techniques to aid people in finding their lost keys. The faculty of The Institute have found that locks and keys permit (or deny) our access to many spaces. Crisis occurs when that space is one that we associate with our sense of security such as our home or our car. Even the best Locksmith is only capable of making someone a new set of keys or picking their lock open. Though these skills are helpful to people they are at the same time incapable of replacing the sense of security that the old keys afforded them. In the end people want their old keys back and the best locksmith in the world would know how to find the place that keys go when they are missing.
Upon further investigation, the staff and I have noticed that all of the people, places, and things in our life are “keys.” They trigger responses that allow us to enter and exit certain cognitive spaces. They act as triggers to fluctuate our consciousness. Looking at the keys in this way implies that they do not lock or unlock our feelings of safety. On the contrary, their presence in our pocket implies a shackle to things, ideas, or people that escort us to certain feelings or sensations. Like being haunted by the memory of a love one after they have passed away. Holding on, keeping locked away what we can never truly hold on to in the first place. When keys are lost it is a sign of that impermanence. Thus, we can only lose them when we hold on to them. When the keys are safely on our key ring they are lost. When they are displaced away from their prescribed spot then they are free. Once free they can become vehicle for change allowing us to experience the world in a new way without them to act as our filter.
