Some Self-Reflection

In this weekend's research I came across this little nugget of wisdom from an essay entitled I, Mercator by Stephen S. Hall that appears in the book You Are Here, Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination by Katharine Harmon.
"Someone recently asked me how I became interested in maps, and I suddenly saw myself as a young child sitting on the floor of a sun porch in the first home I remember, assembling a thick wooden puzzle of the United States, putting each state in its proper place. Before even becoming conscious of its lesson, I am sure the exercise imbued me with a sense of external order, with the idea that things belong in their proper place. It was a fiction, but an important fiction."
This may be what drew my to maps as well. As many of my friends can tell you, I am a huge believer in continuity (shout-out to Mr. Wolk). I like things to stay the same from day to day, because it gives me a sense of external order. That is why I like to sit in the same place in a class every day, and will not only get upset if someone sits in my seat, but also if someone around me moves. Even if nothing in my life is ever stable at least  I can feel like something is has an order. The idea of geography and borders as stable is however a fantasy. The world looks nothing like it did a few billion years ago and borders can change on a daily basis. Even in Middle Earth geography is not a stable thing. Places like Numenor  and Beleriand sink under the sea and are lost before Bilbo and Frodo are even born. But the idea that things look stable helps us get through the day.