Reflections 29th March

Navigating Shifting Borders

And what is a border, if not a story? It is never simply a line, a marker, a wall, an edge. First, it is an idea. An idea that is then presented as a reality. James Crawford, The Edge of the Plain

Crawford is right, and not just about the lines drawn between nations. The maps we make of our economies, our organisations, and our technologies are stories we have chosen to tell, presented as though they were simply descriptions of what is.

I have been spending time lately with James Cheshire’s wonderful “The Library of Lost Maps”. It is one of those books you keep nearby, not to read straight through but to open when you need to think. It is full of wonderful passages, including this one from Beryl Markham, writing in 1942:

“Here is your map. Unfold it, follow it, then throw it away if you will. It is only paper, it is only paper and ink but if you think a little, if you pause a moment, you will see that these two things have seldom joined to make a document so modest and yet so full with h…