Mapping the globe
Maps as a model of the richly complex earth God has created.
When I was four years old, my parents gave me a set of geography flashcards. On one side was the outline of the country and on the other was the name of the country along with significant facts about it. In this way I learned to identify countries by their shape, including now defunct entities such as French West Africa. My love affair with maps thus began early, and it hasn’t dimmed in nearly seven decades.
One of my prized possessions is a 1901 Cram’s Modern Atlas of the World which I purchased at an antique shop in my hometown at age 16. It’s a hefty volume with numerous indices and other helps in addition to the maps of every country in the world. The United States had only 45 states. Canada had seven provinces. To my delight, this atlas boasted a large map of Cyprus, nominally part of the Ottoman Empire but administered by Great Britain. My paternal grandparents would have been quite young in that year.
To know by heart
So what’s the allure? For one thing, I think in terms of maps. Familiarity with maps allows one to navigate the surface of God’s good earth. As I write, we have just returned from visiting family in the Chicago area. I know by heart the roads in the western suburbs and could easily find my way around, despite all the changes that have occurred since my youth. If I navigated by landmarks, I’d be lost in my own homeland.
But there’s more. Maps have an unrivalled beauty. In the past, maps were created by genuine artists, not only to guide people as they travelled but to delight their senses. There is something wonderfully satisfying in seeing the different colours representing the different political jurisdictions in the world. The old maps always showed Canada and other Commonwealth countries in pink. Because so many of my atlases were printed in the United States, they assigned different colours to each state.
A rich complexity
Then there are the shifting international boundaries. My 122-year-old atlas portrays a Germany extending from Strasbourg (or Straßburg) in the west to Königsberg in the east. Austria-Hungary, the Russian Empire, and a larger China grace its pages. Although the territorial changes were accompanied by the deaths of scores of millions in the two world wars, I like to imagine a world in which the wars might have been avoided – had the statesmen of over a century ago been more concerned for justice than for national aggrandizement. Of course, the real world shows none of the colours represented in our maps and globes. Topographical maps are more accurate in this respect. But even these are mere models of a richly complex earth on which God has placed us. We do well to thank God for this earth and for those who have mapped it for our benefit and for our pleasure.
Thank you, David, for this provocative column. Maybe you know Niagara native Adam Schoalts’ book of some years back, *The History of Canada in Ten Maps.” It’s honest, pulls no punches., nor does it offer a sanitized “Canadian Myth.” Instead it’s a fascinating dive into the Europeans who landed in what is now Canada, starting with the Vikings. Their explorations showed awe of the vastness of the landscapes, but,as we know, not much respect for indigenous culture. Your comments about nations that no longer exist reminded me of this book. Shoalts writes eloquently and with a honed conscience not only here, but in other books reflecting on his explorations of this vast land.