Perplexing Perspective #1 (Gotta trace them lines)

An ocean is a terrifyingly large thing to comprehend. To knowingly be on the opposite side of one from everything I’ve ever known is a larger thing still; so large that my mind fails completely to register even a fraction of the distance. 


Internet and, to a lesser degree, phones only compound this problem. To look someone in the face and have a conversation, knowing that they are an ocean and more away is above my level of comprehension. To see pictures of home, friends, and family hours after they were taken, to be told how someone’s day was over the space of mere minutes and thousands of miles, it makes the world deceptively small. This only serves to increase the shock of realizing just how incredibly and unfathomably large the whole thing is. 


Even just looking at something as simple as a map renders all logic mute. Maps are a gross misrepresentation of the world.We ought not to see and understand America and the UK and Asia all in one glance. It’s too bite-sized and does not allow the proper consideration that every country, every city, every town and every person deserves; mountains, oceans, rivers, valleys, highlands and lowlands, deserts, marshes, the entirety of humanity and all its creations all jam packed onto a little sheet of paper. 


Here is everything there is to see, now make it real and make it yours.

Here be Dragons

I am the worst at thinking up names for things. The name of this blog is the name I hated the least. For the record, I think it's a stupid name. Moving on. I recently discovered the term 'Here be Dragons'. This would be a better name, though it is probably quite popular and already taken. It's a shame that hypothetical me that isn't terrible at naming things won't be able to use 'Here be Dragons'.

The term comes from cartography. Whenever a mapmaker got to an area that hadn't been charted yet, instead of taking the route that most high schoolers would and just make shit up, they drew a picture of a dragon and claimed 'that's where the dragons live'.

This practice originally started with the Roman's, where they would mark maps with the much less fantastic but somewhat plausible "This is where Elephants are born". Being the wonderfully frightened species we are, this deviated into lions, serpents, and other terrifying monsters such as walruses. "Walruses?" you say, with little faith. Yes, walruses. You should be scared of walruses.

They like to wear bow ties and eat Christians. 

Eventually, we wound up with maps that had all sorts of freaky monsters on the borders and dragons worked their way into becoming the standard. This says a lot about our species. I can imagine the cartographers discussing it:

"Do we know what's here?"

"Nope"

"Why not?"

"Probably because monsters killed everyone who ever tried. Why else wouldn't we have explored it?"

"Good call. Wanna go with cannibals or squids?"

"Ugh, squids are way too mainstream now. No one will take us seriously if we put squids on our map"

The vast majority of the world has been explored now and there's no more dragons left on our maps. It's a bit sad. Those dragons still do exist though - just in a smaller more personalized form. Your own personal dragon. Maybe your dragon is the same as in the old maps. A dragon protecting the unknown, keeping it hidden from you until you travel there. Sure, it's easy to say that somewhere like Bolivia exists. It's even possible to read up on it, to learn as many things about it as possible. You could be an expert on Bolivia but that dragon will still be on your map. Not until you've gone there will it ever go away.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got dragons to chase.

Where to start?