Excellent. Thanks so much.
1
Beautiful, beautiful. A marvellous piece. Thank you, dear writer.
3
I keep Michelin atlases of Rome and Paris on my bedside table. At a glance, almost any page yields a Proustian plethora of memories and associations.
1
Of all the details to have to correct - the year of a car crash that took place days before a son's birth?
Whew! I felt I lived a lifetime just reading this! Roger Cohen -- what a combination of knowledge, experience and wisdom!
3
Thank you Roger-on two counts. Both my husband and I have always loved maps. The way they can give you the bigger picture, the way they can bring back memories of trips taken and paths chosen in life. My husband was a hoarder and I a disposer-something that caused many conflicts over the years. With his death a year ago I now treasure so much of what I wanted him to dispose of, including the maps that traced our lives together. What I wouldn't do to have him back cluttering up every room in the house once again.
9
The major cause of tension and extremism, not only in the Middle East region but in the whole world, is Israeli Palestinian conflict.
Solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would take away much of the motivation for terrorism and the radicalization of Muslims in the World. Everyone's been saying that for years. We should start sending security bills to Tel-Aviv.
The mother of all terrorism in the World is the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
There was no ISIS, Al Qaeda, Taliban, Hezbollah, or even Hamas before the invention of Israel. Israel was created by Irgun and Gangstern Zionist terrorists, led by Manahem Begin who later became Israel’s P.M.
Solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would take away much of the motivation for terrorism and the radicalization of Muslims in the World. Everyone's been saying that for years. We should start sending security bills to Tel-Aviv.
The mother of all terrorism in the World is the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
There was no ISIS, Al Qaeda, Taliban, Hezbollah, or even Hamas before the invention of Israel. Israel was created by Irgun and Gangstern Zionist terrorists, led by Manahem Begin who later became Israel’s P.M.
2
"... my mother’s first suicide attempt ..."
This begs for some elaboration.
This begs for some elaboration.
"The Girl from Human Street"
1
Come to think of it, the very language we speak is already a map -- a map of thought. The words of Mr. Cohen's column mapped into sentences according to the language we call English lead us straight into the wonders of his closets.
Now If, let us say, we could all agree on a universal map of language -- a literal, 2- dimensional drawing -- then by positioning on that map a limited number of agreed-upon icons, we could transfer thought from one language
to another. Not Shakespearean drama, just the route to the hotel. It would be a system by-passing translation, one map fits all.
I take it, our graphics capabilities are currently up to such a system. In fact, I have tinkered with one such possibility and see no reason why it could not become reality. Map the message.
August Karl Boehmke
Pullman, WA
Now If, let us say, we could all agree on a universal map of language -- a literal, 2- dimensional drawing -- then by positioning on that map a limited number of agreed-upon icons, we could transfer thought from one language
to another. Not Shakespearean drama, just the route to the hotel. It would be a system by-passing translation, one map fits all.
I take it, our graphics capabilities are currently up to such a system. In fact, I have tinkered with one such possibility and see no reason why it could not become reality. Map the message.
August Karl Boehmke
Pullman, WA
1
Beautifully written. I also sadly yearn for some past lovely things, mostly I yearn for time when as human beings we had hope for peace and unity. No it's gone. The nobility of our values seem to be vanishing into hateful comments and fear mongering in the electronic gadgets that we use with such value. When did our values of love and peace go. Sad
7
Thank you, Roger, for yet another wonderful article. We are so lucky to have you.
5
Silent howls in unmapped territory.
4
This article just again illustrates what many people know to be fact: that a good many "Christians" are anything but. It's not coaches getting fired for prayer, it's coaches pressuring players and benching those who don't toe the line. It's not fire chiefs rebuked for citing scripture, it's fire chiefs who are racist and anti Semitic. And heaven knows it's not about bakers and religious beliefs, it's about an effort to exclude "others" from having a place in our secular society. When faithful becomes confused with power hungry, when piety becomes closed-mindedness, that's when "Christianity" devolves into demagoguery and Trumpism and for the current church it's an entirely self inflicted wound.
2
Really? This article?
I like maps too.
I like maps too.
6
Thank you Mr. Cohen for your wonderful article. One of the most valuable skills I learned while serving in the U.S. Army was map reading. In Vietnam, I served as a forward observer for heavy mortars and light artillery. Good map reading skills, and a good compass, were absolutly essential to the mission and to survival. I still have one of the maps I used then. It's faded and full of creases, but still readable. After learning topographic maps, with the contour lines, colors and symbols, I suddenly discovered how relatively easy it is to read other maps; road maps, street maps, ever floor plans in buildings. I've never had a GPS device or other "electronic navigator". As long as I have a good map, I'll never need one.
8
A beautiful and intimately revealing piece for all of us who keep our artifacts of life and to make sense of the rapidly changing impact technology is imposing on us. I kept my compass from an orienteering phase. How quaint.
5
Roger Cohen and his maps is akin to Marcel Proust and his memory stirring madeleines.
5
I have my own box of maps from the '90s when I first came to Europe. Not knowing I would stay, I traveled extensively in those pre-internet, pre-GPS days. I've taken that same road to Split. I will never forget the bullet ridden and bombed out houses from the late '90s. The war was still in the air.
I remember being lost in the city of Udine as we left our map at the hotel thinking we'd have no trouble finding our way back. A very helpful motorcycle cop helped us retrace our steps back, and would accept nothing for his help.
I feel sorry for the younger generation that will never know the freedom of getting on your bike and being told, "Be home for supper" knowing that is the last contact you'll have for the next 12 hours. The freedom of getting truly and utterly lost without having to leave the continent.
Thanks for the memories Mr. Cohen. It's Friday. I think that box of maps, the corresponding box of old photos next to it, and the younger version of myself inside will have a visit this weekend.
I remember being lost in the city of Udine as we left our map at the hotel thinking we'd have no trouble finding our way back. A very helpful motorcycle cop helped us retrace our steps back, and would accept nothing for his help.
I feel sorry for the younger generation that will never know the freedom of getting on your bike and being told, "Be home for supper" knowing that is the last contact you'll have for the next 12 hours. The freedom of getting truly and utterly lost without having to leave the continent.
Thanks for the memories Mr. Cohen. It's Friday. I think that box of maps, the corresponding box of old photos next to it, and the younger version of myself inside will have a visit this weekend.
18
Only in the digital age: lately I saw that a major European airline, that I used almost predominantly in the last 30 years, has a chronological history of all the flights I took with them either for work or pleasure. It was a rediscovery of sort and a pleasurable one!
BTW, I was born in Zadar then Yugoslavia and now Croatia as my florentine father was stationed there during the war and there he wed my very Pugliese mother. My birth there though is just an administrative matter, left at the age of one and came to live in Florence, my father's place, which has been my city since and during my vagabond life.
BTW, I was born in Zadar then Yugoslavia and now Croatia as my florentine father was stationed there during the war and there he wed my very Pugliese mother. My birth there though is just an administrative matter, left at the age of one and came to live in Florence, my father's place, which has been my city since and during my vagabond life.
3
Ah...to write so movingly of boyhood anguish...makes me wonder if time is such a great healer...
Once or twice a month, I find myself delightfully lost in Google Maps. Not for driving directions and traffic indicators (which I think are incredibly accurate and well done), but rather for hour-long armchair excursions. These trips may be triggered by an article in the paper, nice memories of a vacation, a conversation, or even just a thought. The next thing I know, I'm zooming in on satellite shots of countryside in Provence, "driving" through little towns near Stonehenge, clicking through uploaded photos and climbing up stairs from a dock in the Faroe Islands, or reliving a wonderful run in Zermatt, looking for that little restaurant where we had lunch on the side of the piste. Between the satellite images and Street View, Google has given those of us who enjoy them some wonderful little ersatz vacations. Sometimes I'm just stunned by the depth of the imagery available.
As a 60 year old boomer, I'm ready to codger up with the best of them.
But I have say that reading newspapers, books, and yes, maps, on my iPad are in many ways better than the printed materials.
As a 60 year old boomer, I'm ready to codger up with the best of them.
But I have say that reading newspapers, books, and yes, maps, on my iPad are in many ways better than the printed materials.
9
I enjoyed the melancholic, remembrance of things gone by flavor. Maps are not even comparable to GPS and Google Maps. Maps are tactile and give perspective and while looking at a map your attention may be drawn to a place not related to where you are going. Some maps are hard to fold up, however. I really enjoyed Mr. Cohen's "The Girl From Human Street." It was very interesting and moving. I would like to read it again for the first time.
2
Roger, perhaps it's only my reading of what you have written here, but the sadness that flows beneath your words so quietly has an honesty and an authenticity so needed in this time of insults, bombast, swagger, noise. Thank you for this column.
13
Kicked a memory of a Michelin map of France when I was young graduate student of Tony Judt and I brought the map to his seminar (held in his apt. in those days) Afterward we spread the map on the floor an plotted my velo tour through France the summer of 1989! 8 weeks and 2500 hundred miles later that map was seriously abuse, but the detail viewable through the plastic cover on my handle bar bag gave me the confidence to make my 60 -80 mile daily ride. The Gorges du Tarn were a surprising challenge nevertheless. thanks roger
2
To Roger Cohen: I love this column. Your maps are almost as good as a diary in terms of tweaking memory recall. And how lucky you are to have witnessed all that you have. Heartfelt advice from a perfect 50-50 hoarder/waster combo (but pathologically intense about each "disorder" and therefore unbalanced about both): Keep your maps! For as long as they signify to you. And thanks for the reference to L'Inferno from Mr. Luettgen below. I had forgotten this particular hell realm. Glad to be reminded, it's probably my destination.
10
Mr. Cohen, I've read 2 of your books, "The Girl From Human Street" and "Hearts Grown Brutal." I've read years and years of your columns. Keep the maps. How else would I learn the terrain?
10
I can relate to this. I still have my well used Book of the Road - Complete Atlas and Touring Guide to Britain and Ireland. It's a great set of maps with areas of interest and history interspersed throughout. I also still have some AA Road Planner maps that have seen better days and are probably way out of date! I can't seem to throw them away, even though I have no use for them now. I guess after many years in the UK and up to 250 miles a day on the road, the memories trump the trash.
4
What a gorgeously written piece. I think so often of that world we once lived in, the countries that have dissolved, and the ways we mapped our way through it. Teaching teenagers — which I've been doing for over forty years — leaves me mystified at times, not just at the world they live in now, but the one that is becoming something none of us can fully imagine. As soon as I read this column I wanted to share it with them, get them to think about what their future clutter may be. All those photos on Instagram. Will they remember to look at them?
Please Roger, declutter if you must but do NOT throw out those maps.
Please Roger, declutter if you must but do NOT throw out those maps.
16
Thank you, Mr. Cohen, for a beautiful essay. It was with sorrow that I read of your early childhood, and as an admirer of your writing, earlier I was reading a short story by Mavis Gallant, a Canadian journalist who spent her life in Paris; one that she might have dedicated to you. It is entitled 'A Day Like Any Other' - you will find it in her collection of early stories - 'The Cost of Living'. Movers always smile when they see the title of the book and hand it back silently into my care.
5
Use the maps to wallpaper the most mundane room in your home.
4
I have a whole carton of maps and I hardly go anywhere new anymore. I generally pack in a rush so I forget the maps and have to buy new ones when I get there. Then when I get home I throw them in the box because you never know.
I wonder what is in the bottom of that box. Maybe if I dug down into it I would find my treasured Nepal map from my Everest Trek done 30 years ago. You never know.
I wonder what is in the bottom of that box. Maybe if I dug down into it I would find my treasured Nepal map from my Everest Trek done 30 years ago. You never know.
5
Dante cast Hoarders and Wasters into Hell’s Fourth Circle. As punishment for the monumental pointlessness of their lives, they must roll enormous weights at one another, the Wasters shouting, "Why do you hoard?" and the Hoarders shouting, "Why do you waste?" They crash resoundingly, then the souls roll their weights back again to repeat the mutual attack, all the while screaming. For all eternity.
Either Dante, or Big Juju, has a sense of humor a lot like mine. About as sick as a human being is allowed to have and not be carted away himself.
Roger always turned left in Bosnia, while Dante always turned right in Hell. A journalist is nothing if not contrary: ask the ayatollahs; or even Donald Trump.
My advice to Roger is to NOT throw away his maps. Nobody uses maps any longer because we all have GPS systems wired to piercings of our lower-lips. What counts these days aren’t the lines that depict roads but the insistent German female voice telling us “You vill turn right now, und you vill LIKE it!”. But maps often are art. He should bundle them all into a time machine, to be opened in 100 years, when the lands those maps describe likely will be beneath melted Arctic and Antarctic glacial water.
By this means he avoids Dante’s Fourth Circle of Hell and provides an ability for our posterity to marvel at what we once had.
Either Dante, or Big Juju, has a sense of humor a lot like mine. About as sick as a human being is allowed to have and not be carted away himself.
Roger always turned left in Bosnia, while Dante always turned right in Hell. A journalist is nothing if not contrary: ask the ayatollahs; or even Donald Trump.
My advice to Roger is to NOT throw away his maps. Nobody uses maps any longer because we all have GPS systems wired to piercings of our lower-lips. What counts these days aren’t the lines that depict roads but the insistent German female voice telling us “You vill turn right now, und you vill LIKE it!”. But maps often are art. He should bundle them all into a time machine, to be opened in 100 years, when the lands those maps describe likely will be beneath melted Arctic and Antarctic glacial water.
By this means he avoids Dante’s Fourth Circle of Hell and provides an ability for our posterity to marvel at what we once had.
19
A very thoughtful column. Perhaps this lends itself as keys to Mr. Cohen's attitudes towards certain areas. Specifically, his criticisms of Israel and the blame that he ascribes to it, regarding their conflicts in the area. People's life experiences provides windows into their later thoughts...
4
March 10, 2016
How many dimensions to one's map?
The undiscovered as self navigating witness where we judge time, true, and eternal now. Excellence reflection pulsations of eternity's appearance for liberty.
jja Manhattan, N. Y.
How many dimensions to one's map?
The undiscovered as self navigating witness where we judge time, true, and eternal now. Excellence reflection pulsations of eternity's appearance for liberty.
jja Manhattan, N. Y.
2
If you believe that life is a journey, then looking forward and packing light is the way to go. Tools are what we use and dispose of; memories we keep and build on; experiences make us who we are. Why would we need memorabilia to remind us of where we were, or who we are?
Sometimes It does feel good to use an object, to hang on to a past memory. But, like a narcotic, it steals from future. I do not even keep trophies. In a short time we have, planning the future is often more rewarding than reliving the past. It is not a stretch to claim that this same attitude is responsible for many of the American achievements of the last two centuries - and some of the Europe's failures.
Sometimes It does feel good to use an object, to hang on to a past memory. But, like a narcotic, it steals from future. I do not even keep trophies. In a short time we have, planning the future is often more rewarding than reliving the past. It is not a stretch to claim that this same attitude is responsible for many of the American achievements of the last two centuries - and some of the Europe's failures.
2
Why the need?
indeed, Lewis and Clark map makers them self depended on the word of others and not paper nor pixel. Surely they had no need for a women riding shotgun that could not read a map.
I would probably find it amazing to travel the direction of the afternoon sun from the edge of the great water Michigami past the place of zhigaagobag (skunk cabbage) to the glistening white water Wabash to catch fish for dinner, and not a flying carp knocking me into a muddy stream. But that is a dream for the future.
indeed, Lewis and Clark map makers them self depended on the word of others and not paper nor pixel. Surely they had no need for a women riding shotgun that could not read a map.
I would probably find it amazing to travel the direction of the afternoon sun from the edge of the great water Michigami past the place of zhigaagobag (skunk cabbage) to the glistening white water Wabash to catch fish for dinner, and not a flying carp knocking me into a muddy stream. But that is a dream for the future.
3
A beautiful piece of prose that can be enjoyed for a long time
11
Thank you for a very reflective column, and one which resonates personally. Although my global travels are not as expansive or geographically, culturally, or politically significant, I always considered it important to prepare for such ventures by studying maps of the locations. My wife would tease that it was a "sickness" that our car could not pass a visitors' information center without picking up a parcel of maps, etc. On the first morning of our first trip to London, we were exiting the Underground at Picadilly Circus when a gentleman asked me for directions to Chester Square. Because of my "advance work" I knew where Chester Square was, but I didn't want to be too cocky, so I said: "I'm fairly new to London, but if you head in this direction, I think you'll find it." Maps are great guides, and great memories. Thank you, again.
5
GPS tells you where are - a useful piece of information.
But a map...... A map tells you of all the possibilities.
Thank you, Mr. Cohen
But a map...... A map tells you of all the possibilities.
Thank you, Mr. Cohen
22
Don't lose those paper maps. Google is great but if I didn't have my old AAA maps I never would have found my favorite place name:
Big River Sinks Where Lost River Disappears Nuclear Reactor Testing Station.
Its in Idaho, but now has the vanilla name Idaho National Engineering Laboratory.
Big River Sinks Where Lost River Disappears Nuclear Reactor Testing Station.
Its in Idaho, but now has the vanilla name Idaho National Engineering Laboratory.
4
We are brothers in the faith that, in Willie Loman's words, the map is not the territory, but it, and a good compass, will lead you from the wilderness. How else to find the "blue highways" that "make all the difference." My dad flew "over the Hump" and taught me well to always fold your map before you take off. I recommend the memorable "THE DISCOVERY OF FRANCE, A Historical Geography From the Revolution to the First World War" by Graham Robb, an inspiring revelation of the forces of mapmaking in the 18th century. Jacques Cassini showed the French they were one people, a geographical truth that remains as disputed today as any Middle East boundary.
3
What a beautiful piece. I traveled far and met many but never kept a map. It hurts now to read this column. But few weeks ago I returned from Yellowstone Park and now I will keep that map. This is the spot that I saw my first grey wolves in the wild. Love it!
3
I have two old Rand McNally framed wall maps. These are pre-1958 maps which exclude Alaska and Hawaii. One is of the United States and the other is the of the world. I use maps pins to chart all the places I have been for work or vacation. I use the world map to chart only international travel and I use the United States map to chart internal US travel. I recently ran out of a bag of 100 pins. I am a lucky man.
7
Eric, lucky you are but how unfortunate for Alaska and Hawaii to have been excluded from the world map!
Roger, this column hist me square at home. You with maps, me with clips of newspaper articles from years gone by, clippings and printings of recipes I thought to try but never did, cards I received over the years from my children. I have a mish-mash of keepers that once stashed I hardly ever look at again. I am in full sympathy with you but I must say, do not get rid of your maps. They are a treasure. I still have an old map of NYC's subway system from the late 40's and I don'e even know if the lines exist anymore since I've not lived in NY since 1958 and probably never will again. Oh, the joy of junque!
6
Cartographers are artists; maps are works of art.
15
Thank you for the wonderful column. My sentiments exactly. The switching from paper maps to GPS will have serious consequences in coming years as people move from being in and a part of the world (paper maps), to divorcing themselves from reality for the small scale, electronic pixels that the GPS provides. We look at he screen instead of raising our eyes to the beautiful world around us as we move through it.
18
i still keep the Rand McNally road map of US from 1991 which I used to drive 5000 miles from Berkeley to Austin TX and back
so I can look at where
- the town of Luna by the Gila Forest in NM where my co-passengers - a Mexican Pisto and a NYorker - Greenberg running out of gas ut coasted downhill to a gas station 1930s style - the town having just one man and a dog
- Sierra Blanca - on the TX- Mexico border where INS agents stopped our car, and declared that Pisto had overstayed his visa and were going to deport him - Pisto didnt seem to mind when talked to him in the hut, with 110F degree heat outside. in a restaurant with lemonade in mayo jars, with guns and animals heads overhead - the NYorker blabbed on about 'hicks' as this dark skinned East Indian smiled politely at our West Texas hosts.
the map still has mud splattered on it when, on the way back on US 50 - Loneliest Road in America - a tire blew out send the car careening the side of the road - car flipping over on every axis - only our seat belts, and the soft mud by the roadside saved Dave G and me,
so I can look at where
- the town of Luna by the Gila Forest in NM where my co-passengers - a Mexican Pisto and a NYorker - Greenberg running out of gas ut coasted downhill to a gas station 1930s style - the town having just one man and a dog
- Sierra Blanca - on the TX- Mexico border where INS agents stopped our car, and declared that Pisto had overstayed his visa and were going to deport him - Pisto didnt seem to mind when talked to him in the hut, with 110F degree heat outside. in a restaurant with lemonade in mayo jars, with guns and animals heads overhead - the NYorker blabbed on about 'hicks' as this dark skinned East Indian smiled politely at our West Texas hosts.
the map still has mud splattered on it when, on the way back on US 50 - Loneliest Road in America - a tire blew out send the car careening the side of the road - car flipping over on every axis - only our seat belts, and the soft mud by the roadside saved Dave G and me,
9
Thank U Mr. Cohen for a beautiful personal column from a journalist who
does have a sensitive heart. Journalism is not thought of as a noble career
not often too well paid either I might add as a widow of a dead 1. It'll be
years as people remind me "to dig out" not of clutter but stories including
maps (some valuable as he was a leader in advanced technologies for
graphic arts & the evolving future of communications via printing
technologies.) I HAD to throw in desperation while I now knew who he was after 42 years--a journalist who loved journalism, defense of 1st Amendment via plays, back ups for the actual story. Imagination &
predictions often became truth, e.g., prediction "all will come from a little black box" way back in the 1950s. I'm not left w/money to spare but a understanding of how & what will work for the future of generations to
come. Whether "the not yet" to become realized is a burden yet an
obligation for all of us all to think & the journalist heads us in that direction
whether U agree or don't agree. Oh, those maps, the baseball cards,
the stamps, the gifts from all over the world--your column gave me
new strength today. Thank you so much.
does have a sensitive heart. Journalism is not thought of as a noble career
not often too well paid either I might add as a widow of a dead 1. It'll be
years as people remind me "to dig out" not of clutter but stories including
maps (some valuable as he was a leader in advanced technologies for
graphic arts & the evolving future of communications via printing
technologies.) I HAD to throw in desperation while I now knew who he was after 42 years--a journalist who loved journalism, defense of 1st Amendment via plays, back ups for the actual story. Imagination &
predictions often became truth, e.g., prediction "all will come from a little black box" way back in the 1950s. I'm not left w/money to spare but a understanding of how & what will work for the future of generations to
come. Whether "the not yet" to become realized is a burden yet an
obligation for all of us all to think & the journalist heads us in that direction
whether U agree or don't agree. Oh, those maps, the baseball cards,
the stamps, the gifts from all over the world--your column gave me
new strength today. Thank you so much.
5
I try to save airline and other travel documents as guideposts to where I was during certain times of my life. In high school, I bought a scrapbook and quickly filled it with things, mainly photos, that seemed to carry great meaning between 17 to 24, but after that life ran away with me, and me with it, so my "archives" are a mess. I do have something like 200 notebooks filled out with various scratchings that I compiled before the computer age and for a time afterward. I still use notebooks, but not as much.
Having been a day to day reporter and editor/producer and having reported a bit from overseas as well as Dallas, Austin, Reading, Pa., and, predominantly, DC, I have an insight to share with regard to the reporter's life: it is too rich with people, impressions and passing knowledge. It is a meal too big to digest. I am thankful for the times when I took a personal time out, when I quit wonderful jobs, like reporter/producer at NPR, to see things from a different perspective. Otherwise, I think the last several decades would be a blur.
It was once said by a famous NY Times reporter that covering news is the opiate of the restless. To see, to be tangentially involved, to be engaged in important work that might have an impact on one's times, these are the goals, fueled by raw energy and a need to be on the go to the next...war, or whatever. I have come to question how much is really learned by that life unless one is willing to step out it and risk not going back in.
Having been a day to day reporter and editor/producer and having reported a bit from overseas as well as Dallas, Austin, Reading, Pa., and, predominantly, DC, I have an insight to share with regard to the reporter's life: it is too rich with people, impressions and passing knowledge. It is a meal too big to digest. I am thankful for the times when I took a personal time out, when I quit wonderful jobs, like reporter/producer at NPR, to see things from a different perspective. Otherwise, I think the last several decades would be a blur.
It was once said by a famous NY Times reporter that covering news is the opiate of the restless. To see, to be tangentially involved, to be engaged in important work that might have an impact on one's times, these are the goals, fueled by raw energy and a need to be on the go to the next...war, or whatever. I have come to question how much is really learned by that life unless one is willing to step out it and risk not going back in.
14
This a beautiful and moving piece. Thank you so much
I love maps, especially the outdated ones.. the AAA maps which record trips.
I have been going through my papers and things and getting rid of a lot of unnecessaries,, but the old letters, from when we wrote letters are such treasures and I feel sorry for kids now who have not known the thrill of receiving a letter from a friend and carrying it around - a piece of your friend not only in the thoughts expressed, but by there handwriting and their touch.
Keep what you need. Keep what you want. Objects carry memory and can comfort.
I am so sorry that your father destroyed your things in the midst of his grief and yours.
I love maps, especially the outdated ones.. the AAA maps which record trips.
I have been going through my papers and things and getting rid of a lot of unnecessaries,, but the old letters, from when we wrote letters are such treasures and I feel sorry for kids now who have not known the thrill of receiving a letter from a friend and carrying it around - a piece of your friend not only in the thoughts expressed, but by there handwriting and their touch.
Keep what you need. Keep what you want. Objects carry memory and can comfort.
I am so sorry that your father destroyed your things in the midst of his grief and yours.
18
Growing up in pre-WWII Europe, I learned to use map and compass at an early age. I saved my trail maps from the Alps, the Himalaya, the Sierra Nevada, the Rocky Mountains, and the Karakoram. They go together with photographs of beautiful places.
3
In the first class session of a course I teach on regional planning, I ask the students to take a sheet of paper and "Draw a map of the region you consider your home." No other instruction is given. The results are always fascinating. Ten students from the Bay Area will draw ten different maps, varying in scale, focus, extent and dimension. We discuss how different conceptions of "home" and "region" affect policy development and public communication. Next quarter, I'm adding this marvelous essay to their readings on the subject. Thank you Mr Cohen.
8
Mr Brooks: Yet another lovely ( and I use that word in its very best sense ) piece. I am repeatedly drawn to your musings, reflections and perspectives on any number of issues. This piece, though, is pure poetry. Thank you so much for your honesty, openness and humanity....
4
Mr. Cohen,
Columns like this one give the read a better insight into the background of the columnist. It gives us a better understanding of what makes you tick and therefore what lens you write your columns through. Bravo for that.
I seen to connect items that are old. No doubt as my parent's were much older when they had me at the very end of the Baby Boom. Tail end boomers like myself feel a little torn between generations. To feel a stronger connection to one side of that cusp, I assume that is why I collect old stuff.
That said, made my work life with micro-computers so...the best of both sides of the gulf.
I have on top of my computer on my desk a Ma Bell Western Electric 500 series telephone. When I take a trip my iPad is attached to the dash of my 1947 Desoto. You get the idea.
In the event that we get another Solar storm of 1859, I for one will still be able to dive when 99% of the cars on the road will be junk.
The balance is to manage the new technology and not let it manage you.
Success I would argue is to maintain a complexity and diversity of technology both as a road map of your life and a way to protect yourself against over reliance on newfangled gadgets.
I will still carry a paper map for when my iPad dies.
Columns like this one give the read a better insight into the background of the columnist. It gives us a better understanding of what makes you tick and therefore what lens you write your columns through. Bravo for that.
I seen to connect items that are old. No doubt as my parent's were much older when they had me at the very end of the Baby Boom. Tail end boomers like myself feel a little torn between generations. To feel a stronger connection to one side of that cusp, I assume that is why I collect old stuff.
That said, made my work life with micro-computers so...the best of both sides of the gulf.
I have on top of my computer on my desk a Ma Bell Western Electric 500 series telephone. When I take a trip my iPad is attached to the dash of my 1947 Desoto. You get the idea.
In the event that we get another Solar storm of 1859, I for one will still be able to dive when 99% of the cars on the road will be junk.
The balance is to manage the new technology and not let it manage you.
Success I would argue is to maintain a complexity and diversity of technology both as a road map of your life and a way to protect yourself against over reliance on newfangled gadgets.
I will still carry a paper map for when my iPad dies.
4
I too love maps -- paper maps with blue rivers and red roads, dots and stars representing towns and cities. I'm old enough to remember when road maps were free at gasoline station. There was an Esso (remember that name?) station on the corner where I grew up. They had a large rack, maybe three feet by five feet with bins that held dozens of maps covering most of the U.S. It was a delight. Not so fond of GPS sytems -- they lack soul and the ability to evoke dreams in a kid's mind.
5
1958 or 1959 my grandfather bought me a book entitled "1001 Things For Free". I wrote away for a "Map of Space". It wasn't very much. Very little was known in those days, but the times I spent staring at that map were some of my happiest.
At the time I decided to become an Astronaut or design rocket-ships. I did not become a space traveler, but I did become an Engineer.
At the time I decided to become an Astronaut or design rocket-ships. I did not become a space traveler, but I did become an Engineer.
13
Don't under estimate the impact of childhood trauma. Just when you think you have everything under control, some relic from the past re-emerges in your life and catapults you back to an anxious state from years ago.
It might be worthwhile to dust off the relic and examine it to make sure it hasn't grown all out of proportion in size in your own mind. Then put it back where it was for safe keeping in case you may need it again to help someone else get through life!
It might be worthwhile to dust off the relic and examine it to make sure it hasn't grown all out of proportion in size in your own mind. Then put it back where it was for safe keeping in case you may need it again to help someone else get through life!
13
Thank you Mr. Cohen, for a wonderful piece of writing. Cartography serves an immediate and human need. The fixing of a three dimensional universe onto a more easily understood two dimensions. It keeps us from being lost. We can then create our own cartography of memory, such as you have done. My father was an aeronautical cartographer, drafting often with pen and ink in a craft that know seems almost medieval. The collection of charts that he left to me are among my most favorite possessions.
Thanks again.
Thanks again.
5
Thank you, sir, for taking the time to dig so deeply, so clearly.
14
As I grew older, and moved to new homes, I realized I should not retain a lot of "stuff" that I had kept. The Special Collections section of a University library wanted some of my most treasured items. Someone else can treasure them now and in the future. Historians like me wish more folks turned to libraries in this way.
10
American maps with their single line representations of streets are obviously substandard as soon as you see really good European maps. Freytag & Berndt is one of my favorite but tourist maps for the Czech Republic are particularly well made; similar to USGS maps but including color-coded hiking routes criss-crossing the country and symbols indicating a wide variety of features. Mapy.cz is their online answer to Google or Apple maps but far, far better with options to view hiking, biking, and historic maps of the area of interest.
One thing that I've noticed in the US is that we're investing a lot in highway construction upgrades for state and national (non-interstate) highways. An old map combined with an online map can make for much better trips. It's often much more relaxing to take a state highway than a crowded interstate.
One thing that I've noticed in the US is that we're investing a lot in highway construction upgrades for state and national (non-interstate) highways. An old map combined with an online map can make for much better trips. It's often much more relaxing to take a state highway than a crowded interstate.
3
As I rotate & uncover my burgeoning hoard, I encountered Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn. Wouldn't the xenophobia loving nativists be shocked to learn that the iconic Longfellow spent those many hours in that still existing historic place, chatting, swapping stories & listening to music by the fireside with all those peripatetic world citizens, just as he pointed out, in the old colonial days of "ampler hospitality."
Don't part with your hoard Roger. If in many years your sight lessens, a loved one can read to you from those volumes & papers. Some things are inviolable. This everyone should know. And most importantly, you can regale them with your own experiences, surrounded by friends.
Don't part with your hoard Roger. If in many years your sight lessens, a loved one can read to you from those volumes & papers. Some things are inviolable. This everyone should know. And most importantly, you can regale them with your own experiences, surrounded by friends.
14
Before I drive anywhere new I study a road map, trying not only to memorize the turns and signposts, but the places I might miss if I allowed only the mysterious neutered voice on my car's GPS to direct me.
When my wife an I drove 6,000 miles through western Europe in 1965 in our own Volvo 544, we relied on Touring Europa and found treasure after treasure, including a memorable trip through Yugoslavia from Belgrade to Sarajevo to Dubrovnik.
To travel is discovery. I always imagine that I am the first person I know to experience my adventure. And I am.
When my wife an I drove 6,000 miles through western Europe in 1965 in our own Volvo 544, we relied on Touring Europa and found treasure after treasure, including a memorable trip through Yugoslavia from Belgrade to Sarajevo to Dubrovnik.
To travel is discovery. I always imagine that I am the first person I know to experience my adventure. And I am.
11
Thank you, Mr Cohen. I too keep ancient maps, in my case, mostly street maps of cities I've visited, and I just cannot bear to throw them out. For example, I may never need the map of Thessaloniki again, but looking at it reminds me of the wonderful collection of icons in the White Castle.
4
A map you've used to learn a place is like a David Hockney painting, you're in the map and the map's in you. Great article, thanks!
3
The love of reading maps rather than relying on a computer device to give directions to destination?
There seems an evident progression to the human race. The more easily seen progression is the one of technology supplanting need for manual labor. From horse to driven motorcar humans have been inventive in having to avoid manual labor to the point that it is now routine that we must exercise to lose weight, that the sedentary life is deemed harmful to one's health.
The more difficult to see progression is the one of inventing technology which replaces the need to think. Of course in ancient times people pointed out that the written word could be very harmful because it cuts into the mental effort required to memorize knowledge (ability to recite from memory declines with invention of written word). But to this day people generally think that there is something ironic about developing means to make thinking easier for humans: Every step in making thinking easier for ourselves seems to only open up a wider field of knowledge and to demand greater effort of thought.
But probably making thinking easier for people has the same effect on thought that replacement of manual labor has on body: Only the hardy are not likely to degenerate. We see today with replacement of manual labor that only the energetic and disciplined are really physically exercised, and we can expect with increased replacement of need to think for only the most brilliant and restless to question and pursue...
There seems an evident progression to the human race. The more easily seen progression is the one of technology supplanting need for manual labor. From horse to driven motorcar humans have been inventive in having to avoid manual labor to the point that it is now routine that we must exercise to lose weight, that the sedentary life is deemed harmful to one's health.
The more difficult to see progression is the one of inventing technology which replaces the need to think. Of course in ancient times people pointed out that the written word could be very harmful because it cuts into the mental effort required to memorize knowledge (ability to recite from memory declines with invention of written word). But to this day people generally think that there is something ironic about developing means to make thinking easier for humans: Every step in making thinking easier for ourselves seems to only open up a wider field of knowledge and to demand greater effort of thought.
But probably making thinking easier for people has the same effect on thought that replacement of manual labor has on body: Only the hardy are not likely to degenerate. We see today with replacement of manual labor that only the energetic and disciplined are really physically exercised, and we can expect with increased replacement of need to think for only the most brilliant and restless to question and pursue...
4
Maps allow our mind to find our way, our location, our place.
GPDs tell us how to find something: and, when we get there, we have no idea how it happened. God help us when the battery fails.
GPDs tell us how to find something: and, when we get there, we have no idea how it happened. God help us when the battery fails.
1
Reading this I was once again eight or nine, on our annual family vacation trip, sitting in the back seat of Dad's '52 DeSoto with a pile of state maps beside me and one open in my lap, my finger on the red or black meandering line at the point I estimated the car and my family were at that instant. Small numbers told the mileage between highway intersections and towns, and these were added up and converted into the minutes and hours of travel time ahead. And there were voices, not disembodied but coming from Mom and Dad and my little brat of a sister. Mom reminding Dad children's bladders didn't have quite the carrying capacity his did. Sis whining and me egging her on and Dad threatening to stop the car and make us walk for the next mile. Not an idle threat, that.
Thanks, Roger, for a nostalgia break in the midst of this incessant and obsessive hurricane of campaign noise.
Thanks, Roger, for a nostalgia break in the midst of this incessant and obsessive hurricane of campaign noise.
20
Roger Cohen is the only NY Times columnist I can think of who has the soul of a poet. What a beautiful piece. I still have a lot of my paper maps too, and they evoke memories for me as well.
25
Academia Sinica in Taiwan has put together collections of old Chinese maps. The reproductions are themselves things of outstanding beauty. They may be available for viewing over the internet–I haven't checked–but I hope they will become widely available in libraries everywhere.
1
I am on my way soon, to a new place -- and having packed my things once again, I realize I have so much - stuff!
This time, on this trip I am relying on Google. Let's hope it works.
Your article was sweet and touching! Thanks.
This time, on this trip I am relying on Google. Let's hope it works.
Your article was sweet and touching! Thanks.
1
Oh my Mr. Brooks. What a beautiful and moving way to begin my Thursday. Although my maps and objects may reflect journeys to different places, the sentiments expressed are the same. I'm looking at a dented Arabian coffeepot that evokes the aroma of cardamon and memories of the five years I spent in Saudi Arabia over three decades ago. It was there I finally understood, in spades, the critical importance of Church and State. Thank you...
5
Mr. Cohen,
Please include in the map of your life the rather abstract one that contains the locations of your readers.
Writing is an act of courage. Publishing personal writing is an act of heroism: heroic, indeed, the opening of one's thoughts to a readership of persons with whom one has only figurative acquaintance.
We map not en masse, but point by point, in the locations across the nation and across the globe where your writing connects a vast network of appreciative readers.
Thank you for this thoughtful essay.
Please include in the map of your life the rather abstract one that contains the locations of your readers.
Writing is an act of courage. Publishing personal writing is an act of heroism: heroic, indeed, the opening of one's thoughts to a readership of persons with whom one has only figurative acquaintance.
We map not en masse, but point by point, in the locations across the nation and across the globe where your writing connects a vast network of appreciative readers.
Thank you for this thoughtful essay.
22
An excellent thoughtful read but what a pity that so many politicians today are unable to further grasp in social ways the importance of such life into transforming policies. Many of them appear to lack imagination and empathy in all kinds of whole life ways. Seduced by brute politics and power for themselves they forget: for the people, by the people. The heartbeat of this story advances living rather than deceives it. NYT, you are a diamond in the rough.
7
Sadly, but understandably, brutality trumps all.
1
Don't throw out maps, especially if you have some from series like the British Ordnance Survey. The ones that are important should be covered in plastic so you can write over them should you ever feel the desire and in any case it is easier to store them that way.
Yes, all of this is available in the internet, not so much through Google Maps, but academic and government libraries have often made thousands of maps available. But one gets lost in all this. Paper maps are relatively easy to store. Save them, at the very worst, as memorabilia for the next generation.
Yes, all of this is available in the internet, not so much through Google Maps, but academic and government libraries have often made thousands of maps available. But one gets lost in all this. Paper maps are relatively easy to store. Save them, at the very worst, as memorabilia for the next generation.
3
Maps are very beautiful human creations. I would expect someone as sensitive as Roger Cohen to covet them and appreciate how they resonate.
14
Thanks for your beautiful column today. I, too, have a spare bedroom like that. Old maps and travel guides that I just can't seem to part with. Although I love my GPS, especially for travel, I never go anywhere without a paper map as well because technology, as amazing as it is these days, can still fail. Several years ago, my family traveled to France. As we sat in the Charles de Gaulle airport rental car parking lot for half an hour waiting for our GPS to access the satellites, we had to admit that we were on our own. I pulled out the Michelin maps I had bought and easily navigated us to our hotel in the old town of Chartes. It helped that I had spent a lot of time pouring over those maps as well as online maps before we left. Old fashioned paper maps can offer you many and varied options without forcing you to choose the shortest route, and, if like many of us, you hold onto them, they can become roadmaps to wonderful memories.
19
We own a cabin in the mountains where many GPS units don't give accurate information. Rescuing lost renters who don't even know what town or what road they are on has become an avocation. There are so many people who don't know that on paper maps, north is up. To paraphrase someone here: who will save us when the batteries run out?
3
Maps and phone books were "strategic documents" when I lived in Yugoslavia in the 1970s. So maps were rare and precious when you actually needed to find a small place or hope to. But sometimes having no maps creates wonderful memories. Wild rides on tiny uncharted pebble cart paths or ones with surfaces designed for horse shoes and wagons with rubber tires are messages outside time. Maps are just the beginning.
8
My dad loved maps. He saved maps from all his travels. He would look at them and relive his experiences, telling me about what he saw and what he experienced. I still have them and will keep them until I pass on.
19
Beautiful writing: a perfect example of putting immense meaning into simple, elegant prose. Thank you, Mr. Cohen - not for the first time. I always look forward to reading your column, but this one is such a 'keeper' I am going to print it out and save it with all my other cherished journals, maps and yes! journals.
22
What a beautiful and poignant essay; it's poetic and insightful and nestles warmly into one's heart. Thank you Roger.
1
We all have things that we no longer need, but are reluctant to throw away.
Old textbooks, class notes, greeting cards received, and so on. Perhaps this is a manifestation of the human species' primeval desire to own, possess, hold in the hands the chattels that furnish links to the past.
Old textbooks, class notes, greeting cards received, and so on. Perhaps this is a manifestation of the human species' primeval desire to own, possess, hold in the hands the chattels that furnish links to the past.
1
I've been trying to go through my old stuff too. Cigar boxes of letters and photographs my mother and father received from friends and relatives, many who did not survive Hitler. Postcards my mother sent to her parents and brother while they were in Drancy in France before being placed in cattle cars and sent to Auschwitz. The postcards were returned to my mother by the post office stamped "undeliverable." There's really nothing to do, but keep them. I subscribe to the old idea that people you love and care about stay alive and part of the world as long as they are remembered. The letters and pictures will be passed along to my children for safekeeping. They are holy.
16
I am hoping this is a beginning or part of the larger story of your life. But it's alright if it's not. This speaks volumes.
Martin Buber was accused of being a happy Jew. You might be accused of being a sad Jew. It is not at all clear to me how anyone, Jew, Christian, or Moslem, can be happy right now. But we can be determined to make the world a happier place...
1
Happiness is in your mind, not in the world. We can't control the world but we can learn to reshape our minds. The best first step to improving the world is to give yourself a happy mind.
4
My old road map of Yugoslavia is marked with the routes we drove in 1969 and 1972. It serves as a reminder of the places we saw (Sarajevo, Mostar, Banja Luka, Korcula, the Plitvice Lakes, many more) and events, like being awakened at the hotel in Split to watch TV coverage of Neil Armstrong stepping onto the moon. Many slivovitz toasts! Other maps provide similar stimuli to reminiscences. Long live maps!
1
A nice personal essay. I forwarded the link to an online maps discussion group. As to the boundaries between collecting and hoarding, that also makes for an interesting confrontation: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/12/29/why-we-collect-stuff/whe... and https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-house-of-twenty-t... .
Mr. Cohen: I always enjoy your contributions to the NYT. That is because you write so beautifully. About anything and everything. Thank you.
3
Gas stations used to give maps for free. Gulf, Texaco... I have a wood Pepsi crate filled with gas station maps.
Also in the crate are maps of countries and their cities.
There is one little map that means a great deal to me. It's handmade, pencil lines on a scrap of paper. The man who made it was very kind. I've left a directive that the map must be in the pocket of whatever vestment I wear in my coffin. Maybe I'll go looking for the place once again, chat with the man.
Also in the crate are maps of countries and their cities.
There is one little map that means a great deal to me. It's handmade, pencil lines on a scrap of paper. The man who made it was very kind. I've left a directive that the map must be in the pocket of whatever vestment I wear in my coffin. Maybe I'll go looking for the place once again, chat with the man.
4
Great piece. Reminds of a conversation I had the other day about the "Google Maps" generation. That may be an efficient way to navigate a new route, but without a map and a few minutes of its consideration, one may never know the other possibilities beyond the algorithm's suggested most efficient path or what interesting things / places you may be passing along the way. And that seems a shame.
2
Dear dear Roger...this is such a beautiful essay and thank you for it and thank you for making me realize that my hording is not an illness of sorts, but then it really is...I too am going through boxes and boxes in storage of years of accumulation from my travels all over the world...I cannot seem to get rid of anything...but the most devastating moment, was coming across my deceased Russian mother's simple worn, black leather handbag...and in it was a map of Russia, pointing to Moscow (Chekhov!), a white plain handkerchief and a lipstick. I just sat down and cried.
3
Once again, a deep poetic column -- you transport us with your words. Thank you for writing this beautiful piece. Keep the maps!
1
Loved your piece on "the maps of my life", Roger Cohen! When my children were young (they now have children of their own to bring up), I used to scotch- tape the great National Geographic maps (that came tightly folded up in the magazine) to the kitchen wall next to the wall telephone (we didn't have cellphones in those days) so that my children could "osmose" faraway lands as they talked on the phone. We all live beyond mapped borders in this life. Thank you!
4
The love of reading maps rather than relying on computer device for directions? The general trend of society developing technology which by compactness/efficiency both reduces clutter (no need to say, hoard maps when a computer device will do) and makes life easier by reducing both manual labor and the process of thought in many cases as well? My first instinct is to say that technology that reduces manual labor is probably good, but technology which replaces the need to think is probably bad. I personally like to read maps and want to learn how to use map and compass well to go hiking off the beaten track. The really interesting question though is what effect occurs on the human race by developing technology which replaces our need to think. Centuries ago people of course lamented the spread of the written word because the mind would not be exercised in memorization of knowledge which occurs without written word. Today we lament things like people relying on computer devices for directions rather than using maps. But what appears puzzling and ironic is that the more the human race invents devices to make thinking easier or supplant the need to think, the more thought itself gets wider and more complex. We seem to overcome need for manual labor, but thought itself seems to outstrip our ability to devise means to "get it done for us". Or is it that the increasing process of not having to think degenerates the unintelligent among us but forces the intelligent to think anew?
5
Excellent piece. Please do not "dispose of your redundant maps" ever. Many research libraries have map collections. So consider keeping them in the family or deposit/donate your collection. As an example and as a retired librarian I recall using a Baedeker's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Baedeker]
to locate a street map of a city before WWI to answer a reference question. Thank you Mr. Cohen.
to locate a street map of a city before WWI to answer a reference question. Thank you Mr. Cohen.
9
Beautiful. Beautiful. Tender. Inviting. Leaving us with questions. With tenderness toward you.
Give more of yourself...
Give more of yourself...
7
Many people prefer to read books printed on paper. Others prefer Kindle books.
Some people have never written a thank-you note on a card and posted it in the mail. Peyton Manning just got recognition for writing thank-you notes to former NFL players. That showed grace!
Electronics is cold and distant. Paper maps and newspapers and cards come from "living things".....wood!
Some people have never written a thank-you note on a card and posted it in the mail. Peyton Manning just got recognition for writing thank-you notes to former NFL players. That showed grace!
Electronics is cold and distant. Paper maps and newspapers and cards come from "living things".....wood!
1
Maps vs GPS reminds me of how differently we view the world today than just a few decades ago. The little screen or disembodied voice with a narrow path, point to point, a map with the wide vista inviting exploration.
3
GPS gets you from place to place; a map allows you to experience it, and, over time, know it. I grew up in the west, now live in Illinois, but return to the home places each summer. A couple of years ago, at a rest stop outside Billings, I woman in a rented RV asked me what mountains we could see in the distance. I told her, then pulled out my road map, and showed her. I asked her where she was going, and when she told me, I traced a couple of back roads that would get her there through stunning country. She said, Oh, I just go where my GPS tells me," which was the interstate north. How sad, I thought, and think. The only trip to Montana she'll ever make, and she'll miss so much. Maps help you see where you are and what you're looking at. We need more of that, not less.
5
Add me to the roster of map lovers commenting here. The British Ordnance Survey maps are my favorite - great detail. I still periodically peruse the BOS map of the Norfolk (UK, not US) coast from a 1973 visit there.
Lovely, moving, awakening. Thank you for consistently sharing your vision, and wisdom.
2
I very much appreciated your story, Mr. Cohen. I, too, love maps and am loathe to part with them. Many years ago, as I trained to become what I was to be for my working career – a geologist –we were often asked to color the geologic maps we had made in class or field camp. I recall thinking initially how dumb that was. After all, even in the early 1980s I figured computers could or would soon do the coloring for us. Nonetheless, our old codger of a field instructor insisted we take out our set of colored pencils and color the formations on the maps.
What that instructor knew, and I soon found out, was that the process of painstakingly coloring the map made it “yours”. It took time, and some of that time was right-brained and some left-brained. The result was that one came away with a much deeper understanding of the area’s geology and hydrology and topography and the nuanced interactions of those concepts.
I “knew” the area and its characteristics after a coloring exercise, and to this day I will still often color a map to help master its content. It isn’t as fast as looking at a computer screen, but so often, it’s better. Something akin to Frost’s “the pleasure of taking pains”.
What that instructor knew, and I soon found out, was that the process of painstakingly coloring the map made it “yours”. It took time, and some of that time was right-brained and some left-brained. The result was that one came away with a much deeper understanding of the area’s geology and hydrology and topography and the nuanced interactions of those concepts.
I “knew” the area and its characteristics after a coloring exercise, and to this day I will still often color a map to help master its content. It isn’t as fast as looking at a computer screen, but so often, it’s better. Something akin to Frost’s “the pleasure of taking pains”.
37
it is a wonderful article and Mr.James l also loved what you write sir, l am also a map saver , l came to USA from Turkey 1960, l have maps of Istanbul/Turkey and now l am 81 years old , l open these maps and find where my ap. was, l do some coloring, when l look these maps l close my eyes and my life pass thru like a motion picture in front of me, l say BRAVO to Mr.Cohen as all ways l say about you sir
2
Change being the only permanent thing in life and the world, it's difficult to map life or the geography; for if the forces of nature or the war instincts of man could change the known geography, the dynamics of life could do the same with the known profile of life. Hoarding and disposing thus constitutes a regular life- metric.
This was beautiful. I traveled to Rome last summer and your column made me think of those hot, sweltering streets.
And yes, I recall suddenly hearing about Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia and Sarajevo in the news. It was that frenzied time before 9/11 when people were fixated on Monica Lewinsky and what new scandal will erupt with the Clintons.
It's nice to read a column in Opinion section that refrains from mentioning Hillary or Trump!
And yes, I recall suddenly hearing about Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia and Sarajevo in the news. It was that frenzied time before 9/11 when people were fixated on Monica Lewinsky and what new scandal will erupt with the Clintons.
It's nice to read a column in Opinion section that refrains from mentioning Hillary or Trump!
13
so why did you find it necessary to mention them?
5
Point taken.
2
To me a map is like a book. They show the same things differently than on an electronic device.
They give a bigger picture. They offer context and understanding. They invite browsing through, looking around, comparing, checking ideas.
The computer is narrow, specific, and discourages those things. It just answers an immediate question.
Of course there is a place for an immediate answer to the specific question at hand. But it is not everything. It is not even the most valuable thing.
A mentor once told me that the most valuable thing I did for him was to turn off the light, stare at the ceiling, and think about the problem. After that was busywork. Without that, the busywork would fail.
Maps and books are the things that help thinking.
They give a bigger picture. They offer context and understanding. They invite browsing through, looking around, comparing, checking ideas.
The computer is narrow, specific, and discourages those things. It just answers an immediate question.
Of course there is a place for an immediate answer to the specific question at hand. But it is not everything. It is not even the most valuable thing.
A mentor once told me that the most valuable thing I did for him was to turn off the light, stare at the ceiling, and think about the problem. After that was busywork. Without that, the busywork would fail.
Maps and books are the things that help thinking.
32
I also like maps and some I save. Others have made wonderful gift-wrapping paper, in keeping with my fond belief in recycle/reuse/repurpose.
Thank you for this column and wishing you future happy trails.
Thank you for this column and wishing you future happy trails.
10
Your writing has a beauty to it . . . from opinion to travel and better when combined. Maps in today's piece took me with you on your past journeys and I found myself hoping NYTime's most critical readers will appreciate the break from politics and feel the depths of understanding you bring to us on each subject you choose to illustrate with your rich experiences. Thank you Mr. Cohen.
64
Yes. Especially the break from politicia! With beauty. And tenderness.
2
Bravo, Roger. Maps are important. As a boy growing up in Scotland, a small country of roughly 53,000 square miles if memory serves but folded very nicely with mountains, glens and lochs, I determined to get every single one of the U.K. Government issued one-inch-to-one-mile ordinance survey contour maps of Scotland. I felt the need to thoroughly cover my little country. And over decades they served their practical purpose to guide hiking and cycling. Now they gather dust in a spare bedroom in Philadelphia, just like Roger's maps. But not to be thrown out ever.
39
Great example of what is lost in the screen-based world. We live in 3 dimensions but cell phones, tablets, computers, etc only give us a flattened image, no substance, no nuance. The maps bring memories of the real world, people dying, people getting along, suffering and joy. The GPS give us directions (and hopefully do not tell us to drive off a cliff) but no substance. As humans we have eons of evolution in absorbing information through our senses and making sense of it with our brains. That is being stripped from the present generation, one reason why a Trump can seem attractive.
10
Keep the maps forever and I'm very sorry for the loss of your family as you knew it. As adults, we make our own lives. Carry on.
23
Roger,
Please scan the maps for easy transport and recall as portable document files; they certainly are life maps, too.
John on Remsen Street
Please scan the maps for easy transport and recall as portable document files; they certainly are life maps, too.
John on Remsen Street
2
So beautiful, so moving.
Isn't Damascus Gate a beautiful place to look at and to stand by watching Arabs and Jews mingling ?
Thank you Sir,
FS
Isn't Damascus Gate a beautiful place to look at and to stand by watching Arabs and Jews mingling ?
Thank you Sir,
FS
2
I love my gps, and wouldn't dream of driving without it. But this piece sharpens my realization that I don't really know the shape of the city where I now live. I grew up in New York, and there's a full-color street map embedded in my brain. I don't know if my aging brain has the capacity to,do that - what London taxi drivers call "the knowledge" - again, but now I'm going to try.
8
Somewhere, I have an old map of Manhattan, from my first visit there, showing the intended site of the World Trade Center.
Many years later, I was a resident Manhattanite when the towers came down.
Yes, I completely understand what you're saying.
Many years later, I was a resident Manhattanite when the towers came down.
Yes, I completely understand what you're saying.
6