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Garrison Keillor's radio spot Writers Almanac is a short daily program of prose about writers and their lives, ending with a poem. I thought today's poem might be of interest. MAP by Julie Cadwallader-Staub Reaching back from the front seat while Mom drove, my dad showed us the series of two lane roads we would travel from our home up north in Minneapolis, to Judge and Kiki's house down south in Jefferson City. He challenged us to add up the miles between the pinhead markers on the map and find the exact spot where our red station wagon was right at that moment, loaded with the eight of us, our dog, our food, our suitcases. I loved the names of the towns we rolled through Owatonna, Oskaloosa, Ottumwa and I enjoyed the map games, but folding that map utterly mystified me. I would try every which way before giving up and handing a bulky square, creased down the middle, up to the front seat where my father would spread it out in the air in front of him, deftly pop in and out the folds until the map collapsed into his hands of its own accord. Now forty years later, he and I wait for my mom to get out of surgery, and we pore over a map to find a better way home, and I trace for him the route I have chosen from 494 East to 35W North to 11th street and he studies this for a long time before he moves his index finger along the thick green line that bisects Minneapolis and says, "Now, is this what you call north?" "Exactly," I say. Satisfied, he creases the map down the middle and hands it to me. I don't re-fold it. Now 89 years old, he's been married since he was 30, practiced pediatrics until he was 80, raised six daughters, escaped from the Nazis in his youth and survived a stroke in his old age. That map, just as it is, is accomplishment enough. "MAP" by Julie Cadwallader-Staub. Reprinted with permission of the author. _______________________________________________ MapHist: E-mail discussion group on the history of cartography hosted by the Faculty of Geosciences, University of Utrecht. The statements and opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the University of Utrecht. The University of Utrecht does not take any responsibility for the views of the author. List Information: http://www.maphist.nl Maphist mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.geo.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/maphist
