from “A Map/A Method”
A METHOD
Me and her, we fight about the method we should use to map the woods behind the park. I say we should follow the paths deliberately, marking down all the forks and shortcuts, until we have followed anything there is to follow, until we have connected all the connections in these woods. She says we should start with the strangest landmarks, build our map around those, forge our own paths through the woods, and only then mark our routes in ink. I tell her that’s not practical and she tells me my method is too logical. We debate about the symbols on our legend, the direction that our compass should point. I try to color code the different areas in the woods, but she tells me my divisions are arbitrary and unnecessary. She draws things on the map I have never seen before, and when I point to them and ask her about them, she says they do not exist yet, no, they are the things that we will build, me and her, here in the woods behind the park. I tell her that we cannot add something to the map that isn’t there. It might be misleading. Sometimes, she tells me, it’s better to be misled. Where are we on the map? I ask. I ask her this and she says to me, we are nowhere. We haven’t been built yet.
By Sam Mortone (via Pank Magazine)
