Maps

A random, late-night thought: I was into maps as a kid. I recall one of my elementary classes having some extracurricular map instruction self-study courses available for extra credit, but you had to get your main work done first. I put an unusual effort into finishing my work so I could do the next map course.

I recall thinking that I had no way of telling if the maps were true. At the time I had not been to many of the mapped places. As I got older it was a comfort to travel around by plane and car and verify that the maps were true. I don't mean every road and every detail, but that the cities were where the maps said they were. I could see them from the air; I could navigate between them by car. I've driven in a 20-foot circle where 4 states meet. I've cruised the sea from Florida to Cozumel. I've stood at Pike's Peak and looked over the fruited plains. (That reminds me, I've also been to San Francisco.) I've driven alongside a few hundred miles of the Mississipi River. I've been into the Smoky Mountains. The maps were true.

I am not from Missouri, but sometimes you need to show me. I've had too many people testify with sincerity things I later found out to be complete bullshit. I'm not the type of person to do that, and it is hard for me to accept that others do it, but I've seen it repeatedly and know from experience that some people are simply full of shit. So don't testify to me about your dear and fluffy lord or show me a bullshit piece of cloth that covered him 2000 years ago or a popular book that has been translated and altered multiple times, isn't verifiable and contradicts itself as a matter of habit.