Columbus Day
Humans make maps because we are most afraid of what we don’t know. Maps are a detailed representation of a place, they are made by the people who were there first, mapmakers are brave, mapmakers are adventurous, and we can be too with the help from what they create. Maps keep us safe. This past monday was Columbus Day, I learned in 2nd grade in Mrs. Segal’s class that Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 on the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria and found the new world. We colored a coloring sheet of him and the Indians that we hung in the hallway outside the classroom. In 5th grade in Mrs. Roosevelt’s class I learned that Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 on the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria but he didn’t find the new world. There weren’t any coloring sheets of Columbus shaking hands with the Indians. We were taught that Columbus was brave as most mapmakers are. He brought back to the King of Spain the ends of the earth. He brought back to the New World a genocide. Humans make maps because we are most afraid of what we don’t know, they are made by the people who were there first, mapmakers are brave, mapmakers are adventurous, we are better for the maps they make. Maps make us safe.
Exploration #4
5:07 pm, 10.10.16
I run into my friend Jenna sitting on the curb outside Belden, it’s almost 70 degrees but she says she’s wearing her pink fuzzy socks because they make her happy. It’s been sunny all day but the sun is finally about to go behind the clouds. There is no breeze which makes it feel warmer than it probably is.
5:22 pm, 10.10.16
A man is blowing all the leaves from the streets to sweep them up, it reminds me of jumping into piles of leaves during the fall with my brothers. It smells like fall and crisp leaves, they crunch when I walk over them.
6:00 pm, 10.10.16
Even though the sun is setting I’m sweating from my walk. I’m wearing a sweater to try and hint to the weather that it needs to start getting cooler but I don’t think it picked up on my protest. A small gelato was $5.22, to match the aesthetic of the day I got rasberry, mango and citrus. It tastes kind of bitter but really good when you mix them together. It feels like the last ice cream of summer.
6:45 pm, 10.10.16
All the colors of the day meet together when the sun sets. It surprises me how easy it was to find pinks and yellows out in the world, and how easy it was to find the two colors mixed together. I wonder if the people in their cars are stopping to look at the sunset too.
