Up and Away

I moved to Oregon this week. You don’t need to applaud or anything; I just mention it because it’s what got me to thinking about North. Thinking about north got me to wondering about maps, specifically why is north always on top?

So I asked. I said, “God, why is north always ‘up’ on maps?”

He told me to look at the trees.

So I did.

The trees are taller here than down in L.A. but not even for a minute did I suspect that gravity had anything to do with it. So if it wasn’t the height, what was it? Then I noticed that they were evergreens, pine trees, and pine trees grow straight and tall. Now I may not encounter pine trees much on the streets of L.A. but Southern California does have lots of them. They keep them mostly on the mountains.

That’s when it hit me. To get to pine trees I had to either go up the mountains or go north. So going north is like going up. So on maps they put north on the upper part of the page!

It makes me feel sad for the people in the southern hemisphere; their maps must be all messed up.

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