First off, a little tribute to maps, by whoever wrote "West with the Night."
---------------------------begin quote, except I substituted "paddler" where the author wrote "pilot"---------------------------
A map in the hands of a paddler is a testimony of a man's faith in other men; it is a symbol of confidence and trust. It is not like a printed page that bears mere words, ambiguous and artful, and whose most believing reader--even whose author, perhaps--must allow in his mind a recess for doubt.
A map says to you, "read me carefully, follow me closely, doubt me not." It says, "I am the earth in the palm of your hand. Without me, you are alone and lost."
And indeed you are. Were all the maps in this world destroyed and vanished under the direction of some malevolent hand, each man would be blind again, each city be made a stranger to the next, each landmark become a meaningless signpost pointing to nothing.
Yet, looking at it, feeling it, running a finger along its lines, it is a cold thing, a map, humorless and dull, born of calipers and a draughtman's board. That coastline there, that ragged scrawl of scarlet ink, shows neither sand nor sea nor rock; it speaks of no mariner, blundering full sail in wakeless seas, to bequeath, on sheepskin or a slab of wood, a priceless scribble to posterity. This brown blot that marks a mountain has, for the causal eye, no other significance, though twenty men, or ten, or only one, may have squandered life to climb it. Here is a valley, there a swamp, and there a desert; and here is a river that some curious and courageous soul, like a pencil in the hand of God, first traced with bleeding feet.
Here is your map. Unfold it, follow it, then throw it away, if you will. It is only paper. It is only paper and ink, but if you think a little, if you pause a moment, you will see that these two things have seldom joined to make a document so modest and yet so full with histories of hope and sagas of conquest.
No map I have paddled by has ever been lost or thrown away; I have a trunk containing continents.....
---------------------------end quote---------------------------
I'm sure I have lost or thrown away a map or two, but I still have a lot of them. I gotta figure out something to do with them other than this:
So, how do you store your maps? Or, should I even bother storing 'em? It's all online now anyhow.
---------------------------begin quote, except I substituted "paddler" where the author wrote "pilot"---------------------------
A map in the hands of a paddler is a testimony of a man's faith in other men; it is a symbol of confidence and trust. It is not like a printed page that bears mere words, ambiguous and artful, and whose most believing reader--even whose author, perhaps--must allow in his mind a recess for doubt.
A map says to you, "read me carefully, follow me closely, doubt me not." It says, "I am the earth in the palm of your hand. Without me, you are alone and lost."
And indeed you are. Were all the maps in this world destroyed and vanished under the direction of some malevolent hand, each man would be blind again, each city be made a stranger to the next, each landmark become a meaningless signpost pointing to nothing.
Yet, looking at it, feeling it, running a finger along its lines, it is a cold thing, a map, humorless and dull, born of calipers and a draughtman's board. That coastline there, that ragged scrawl of scarlet ink, shows neither sand nor sea nor rock; it speaks of no mariner, blundering full sail in wakeless seas, to bequeath, on sheepskin or a slab of wood, a priceless scribble to posterity. This brown blot that marks a mountain has, for the causal eye, no other significance, though twenty men, or ten, or only one, may have squandered life to climb it. Here is a valley, there a swamp, and there a desert; and here is a river that some curious and courageous soul, like a pencil in the hand of God, first traced with bleeding feet.
Here is your map. Unfold it, follow it, then throw it away, if you will. It is only paper. It is only paper and ink, but if you think a little, if you pause a moment, you will see that these two things have seldom joined to make a document so modest and yet so full with histories of hope and sagas of conquest.
No map I have paddled by has ever been lost or thrown away; I have a trunk containing continents.....
---------------------------end quote---------------------------
I'm sure I have lost or thrown away a map or two, but I still have a lot of them. I gotta figure out something to do with them other than this:
So, how do you store your maps? Or, should I even bother storing 'em? It's all online now anyhow.
) and asked for assistance from these folks.
