Cartographers use “projections” to map Earth. The projections are mathematical constructs that enable mapmakers to turn a round world into a flat one that’s easier to carry around than a globe, the only true map of the planet. People don’t carry around globes in their back pockets: “Does this globe make my butt look fat?”
Flat maps cause distortions. Just look at Greenland on a globe and then on a flat map. The globe shows its true size relative to, say, South America. The flat map makes Greenland look like a continent that approaches South America in size. As a personal geographer, you, too, use projections to map your world.
When your projections distort reality, you map make-believe worlds. Often, what you imagined to be bigger, taller, smarter, harder, more glistening, more unattainable, you eventually discover to be rather finite, a pinch or a lot smaller, shorter, dumber, softer, duller, reachable.
A short tale: When the athletic 22-year old college athlete (call him Sam) went with his girlfriend (call her Lisa) to her neighbor’s house for the first time, Sam encountered the pet Rottweiler (call him Fido). Big head, big teeth, big dog. Standing behind the nearest wingback chair because he thought it offered the greatest protection, Sam watched in amazement as Lisa played with Fido and his favorite chewing toy, an effigy of a lion tamer. When the dog accidentally pinched Lisa’s finger in its mouth during their tug of war over the toy, she swatted it on the nose and said, “Bad dog!” To Sam’s astonishment, Fido cowered before a gentle creature he could have mauled. Now there’s a distortion of reality. Sam’s guess is that Fido still views Lisa through a puppy’s eyes. You see this type of distortion in the circus lion and the lion tamer. A 450-pound fanged carnivore with the IQ of a runaway truck obeys the 175-pound lion tamer with the tiny, oft-flossed canine teeth and no claws.
Go away from an imposing place and return years later to remark, “Gee, I thought it was bigger than this.” Go away from an imposing person (teacher, manager, minister, coach) and return years later to find someone of surprisingly lesser stature than you remember. Play in trepidation during your rookie season, and then return the following year to face the same opponent. Go through college thinking that a professor is omniscient, then study the subject on your own and couple your knowledge with practical experience. Face the interviewer years after you have risen to VP. Skip the first three high school reunions before returning to see the BMOC or the BWOC. Watch the popular football star whose glory days seem so incongruous to his walking in handcuffs and shackles in front of the local sheriff, or to his walking his garbage to the curb outside a modest house in the suburbs.
Again, I ask you to compare the features on a globe with the features on a flat map. Projections distort in various ways. In what ways have you distorted your personal world?
Flat maps cause distortions. Just look at Greenland on a globe and then on a flat map. The globe shows its true size relative to, say, South America. The flat map makes Greenland look like a continent that approaches South America in size. As a personal geographer, you, too, use projections to map your world.
When your projections distort reality, you map make-believe worlds. Often, what you imagined to be bigger, taller, smarter, harder, more glistening, more unattainable, you eventually discover to be rather finite, a pinch or a lot smaller, shorter, dumber, softer, duller, reachable.
A short tale: When the athletic 22-year old college athlete (call him Sam) went with his girlfriend (call her Lisa) to her neighbor’s house for the first time, Sam encountered the pet Rottweiler (call him Fido). Big head, big teeth, big dog. Standing behind the nearest wingback chair because he thought it offered the greatest protection, Sam watched in amazement as Lisa played with Fido and his favorite chewing toy, an effigy of a lion tamer. When the dog accidentally pinched Lisa’s finger in its mouth during their tug of war over the toy, she swatted it on the nose and said, “Bad dog!” To Sam’s astonishment, Fido cowered before a gentle creature he could have mauled. Now there’s a distortion of reality. Sam’s guess is that Fido still views Lisa through a puppy’s eyes. You see this type of distortion in the circus lion and the lion tamer. A 450-pound fanged carnivore with the IQ of a runaway truck obeys the 175-pound lion tamer with the tiny, oft-flossed canine teeth and no claws.
Go away from an imposing place and return years later to remark, “Gee, I thought it was bigger than this.” Go away from an imposing person (teacher, manager, minister, coach) and return years later to find someone of surprisingly lesser stature than you remember. Play in trepidation during your rookie season, and then return the following year to face the same opponent. Go through college thinking that a professor is omniscient, then study the subject on your own and couple your knowledge with practical experience. Face the interviewer years after you have risen to VP. Skip the first three high school reunions before returning to see the BMOC or the BWOC. Watch the popular football star whose glory days seem so incongruous to his walking in handcuffs and shackles in front of the local sheriff, or to his walking his garbage to the curb outside a modest house in the suburbs.
Again, I ask you to compare the features on a globe with the features on a flat map. Projections distort in various ways. In what ways have you distorted your personal world?
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