Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Wow!

I love maps. Old maps, new maps, maps of the land, maps of the sea, maps of the weather. I loved that when I was in Europe, the maps hanging in different places didn't have the US front and center. I know it sounds obvious enough, but it took a couple of seconds to shift my mental world view to...oh yeah, we aren't the center of the world. How wonderful is that?

That to say this: I look at a lot of maps. But I've never seen this map, and I wouldn't have, but for one of my latest favorite blogs to follow called Slow Love Life, which is nothing like the title might suggest, even though it is exactly like the title suggests. The romance is more about the world we live in close up into and overviewed overall. Anyway, I like it and because of it, I got to see and then share this map with you!!

From the web site:
The wind map is a personal art project, not associated with any company. We've done our best to make this as accurate as possible, but can't make any guarantees about the correctness of the data or our software. Please do not use the map or its data to fly a plane, sail a boat, or fight wildfires :-)
(This is just a sample of the live map, which moves and can be zoomed and other fun bits)

In other words, this is just a cool way to 'see' the wind, but not necessarily in a perfectly true way. What more can you ask from a map than that degree of honesty?

Of course, these days there is GPS and navigational maps that practically take your trip for you. I like them at sea, as a reference, but on land they can be plenty annoying. There can be such a thing as too much precision and too much information, even with all the bonus points.

So I can live easily with this map, the art of it, the lovely idea of watching the United States as a whole entity, swirling and whirling in a harmony of wind, if nothing else. No red states or blue, no factions or fevers, just the wind, blowing and breezing, sighing and bustling, wrapping itself on and over and into every circled corner...