We each have a place story. Imagine a world map and dot all of the places you’ve lived. Now, connect the dots chronologically, and then lift the shape from the page. That’s your place illustration. The one here is mine. A friend wrote to me, “What about the fact that it looks like a sprinter in motion?” We are each a beautiful accumulation of the landscapes we’ve inhabited. For some, it might be one lone strong dot. For others, some scratches across the page. For many in today’s globalized world, a maze of back and forth. Last night, someone told me that women in China who migrated out of rural areas to work in city factories are out of work and going back home. Movement.
What does your place illustration look like? Can you give its shape a name? Does it look like a star, a rabbit, a saucepan? Assuming a geographer’s hat, I love to zoom out and imagine our patterns as humans, where our feet take us, and whether that is changing in the modern world.
I love this idea, Molly. Putting an image to our movement that, for me, so often feels unconnected. I really like it. I remember feeling like nobody “understood” my life when I was living in Mexico for so many years, like there was no connection to things past or what may come in a move back to the states. It is comforting to think of it in this way.
Mine would like like a vertical up and down on the western hemisphere, throughout the Americas. I want to go farther! Maybe not to live, but definitely to explore.
Thanks for this post.
okay. this is an AMAZING idea. i am going to print out a map of the world and find my shape, then reflect here. looking at yours, moll, is incredible. to see the touch back touch back of landscape and place throughout your life from childhood to adulthood. without drawing mine yet, it would probably look like a broad-winged bird. stretching first east then west then back to center.
i love this.
What a wonderful idea to visualize the movement of where we have been and what we have seen, which shapes so much of who we are….I imagine my own map and it is a star. A central point with long arms reaching out in all directions into the unknown and then back again.
I can’t help thinking of the map with the added dimension of time. My map starts out with very little movement… then suddenly the arms of the star extend more rapidly, new places, new experiences, reaching ever further…. and now I find myself near the center of the star but with pieces of my heart out at each one of the points….
Anther thoughtful entry, Molly. Thank you. Sans pen, I’ve drawn my map with my fingernail on a piece of paper. Not surprisingly, it’s about as chaotic as yours. Funny that now I’m back at, or at least near, the starting point of my map. And happier than I’ve been in years.
I really like Jen’s idea of adding the dimension of time. I also wonder if, like Bhutan, you could measure happiness on that scale. It would probably be revealing.
a runner in motion. nice.
mine is a triangle. im not sure how i feel about it either.
i want mine to be unfolding wings or big licks of fire. something fresh and evolving. i just cant shake that a triangle isn’t exactly that.
so i’m aiming to see it as the base of a pyramid. big and strong. ready to rise up.
Kate, Amazing how a visual can remind you that you know the Western Hemisphere so well.
Hannah, A broad-winged bird! Love that.
Jen, The dimension of time. To all the geographers out there, is there a way to map that? You mention pieces of your heart at each one of the points. I always ask, how can we allow for those pieces without feeling a loss?
Sam, Something about the starting point and happiness. Thank you for this idea. If I were a research-nut, I would look into just that… where are we happiest? Is it our original home, is it the place furthest away? And can we ever really separate our community from our landscape?
Lauren,
A triangle is a rock star symbol. Just remember that. I like your idea of your place illustration as a pyramid rising up!
Mol……
I am just about to go off and plot MY place story. I am anxious to see what shape will evolve……
I have not roamed the world as you have, but I have had some interesting journeys nonetheless!
Aunt J, Hello! I’m curious to see what shape your place story takes as well. It’s a remarkable visual exercise. And remember… Thin lines crossing the page are, by nature, thin. One dot growing in size is solid, grounded, a foundation.
Mine looks like the belt on average American waistline. That is, slowly expanding with increasing age. I’ll have to consider sliming up by living further north or south…
I imagine that those airline maps that you see in the back of the inflight magazines might offer a reasonable blueprint for many people’s migrations. One hundred years ago it might have been the still-new transcontinental rail lines…