Not all who wander are lost...but some are.

If you're ever in Albuquerque, and you find an old red VW bus with a bumper sticker reading, "Not all who wander are lost," you've probably found my car. The sticker was an impromptu gift from my brother, and bore a respectable sentiment penned by J. R. R. Tolkien, so I put it on without much thought.
A short time after that one of my friends was following me as I set of on what became an unnecessarily circuitous route through residential neighborhoods before winding up almost exactly where I' d started (an easy, if not inevitable feat in Santa Fe, but a trickier one in Albuquerque). When we finally arrived at where we were going he pointed out that while not all who wander are lost, some, in fact, are, and I might want to add a warning indicating such.

The full quote reads:
All that is gold does not glitter,
not all those who wander are lost;
the old that is strong does not wither,
deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
a light from the shadows shall spring;
renewed shall be blade that was broken,
the crownless again shall be king.
-J. R. R. Tolkien from The Lord of the Rings

I state the rest of it, or at least some more of it here to help illustrate the meaning of Tolkien's poem and the way in which my friend's statement diverges from it. Tolkien starts out with a few lines about perception and assumption. Though you may think you see gold it may be something else, though someone may appear to be lost, they may have their own agenda that you are not accounting for. The next few lines turn the poem in a new direction, though still connected to this idea of perception. These lines are more about the eternal essence of things. Strength is always strong, despite the onset of age. The roots remain alive even in the blasting cold of winter. Fire is always fire, though it has been reduced to ash. So the perceptions are still being fooled. We perceive age, or cold, but in truth there is strength and fire. The line regarding the fire introduces the next theme of the piece that of rebirth. The fire, the light, the blade, and the king are all reborn. There is a nice flow to these lines. We start with the simple idea of the failure of perception to recognize reality and move through a series of images, so that when we arrive at the end the final line does not simply mean the king will return, but encompasses the full range of themes in the rest of the poem. The king is eternal and, though you may not be capable of recognizing him we is destined as are all enternal things to return. Each of the lines applies directly to the final one. You may not see the sparkle of gold on the king, but it is there. Though he appears to be an aimless wanderer, he is on the path to his destiny. He comes from an ancient line, but that line is strong and has not disappeared. Though his line appears dead it is alive and will return in the metaphorical spring. The fire of his line (of his leadership, of his strength, etc) is not dead, but will again be kindled, and so on. All in all, it's a pretty tight little verse.
Let's put this half-hearted literary analysis to the side now and focus on the single line. When you separate this part of the line from it's context the meaning changes a bit. The same perception versus reality quality remains a viable interpretation, but the meaning I find most resonant is that of the quest. Sometimes, when you are looking for something wandering in an apparently aimless fashion may be a necessary part of the journey. Beyond that, sometimes wandering may be the point of the journey. If this is the case, then how do you tell the difference between being lost and wandering toward an unknown goal? How do you know if you continuing to explore and to grow from when you're just spinning your wheels? It may be that some of us are wandering because we have to, while others are wandering because we don't know what else to do. We've lost the path, have no real way of getting back to it, and feel that any direction is as good as any other. We're lost. Maybe it's a temporary thing, maybe not.
Well, you'll have to figure out your own situation, but I feel it's only fair to warn you, I may be wandering as a means to get where I'm going, but there's a good chance I'm just one of the lost.