I think most people have a sense of how to get from home to work everyday. They can probably find things along the way, and possibly short distances from this path, but much further than that and they quickly become lost. And this extends outward from the streets we frequently traverse to the states we travel in. The east doesn’t know the west, the west doesn’t know the east, and everyone thinks that in between is simply a void.
And I certainly fit into this group. However as situations demand knowledge my trip this summer required that I become a bit familiar with that middle area that is best known as the void one flies over to get to California. For example, Colorado which I picture as mountainesque and full of ski resorts and yuppies borders Kansas which I picture as filled of farmers and people who don’t believe in evolution (I know, stereotypes). So to later practice this newfound geographic sensibility and also hopefully teach those around me I play the Geography Game.
For beginners a good place to start is to look at a map, like that above and attempt to label all fifty states (there are only forty-eight on the map, the other two you can just name). If you can do this (which I find most people, yes even PhD students–my largest focus group, cannot do). With practice though, they normally can be taught.
From here we move on to level two, starting with just an outline of the contiguous states. This is a bit harder, and people complain they do not have the artistic talent to properly complete this task. I tell those people they are wrong and we are not looking for perfection, just a reasonable likeness. At this point we start to see “holes,” the places that end up left over once all the states are drawn in. The void where one just can’t figure out which state (or piece of state, or multiple states) are necessary to fill in the blank.
This which I promise is a surmountable task then beckons people on to level three. Starting from scratch. Yes, a blank sheet of paper. At this point we are normally presented by the participant with an outline of the country that always reminds me of Kim Dingle’s United Shapes of America in which she made an oil painting based on a collection of drawings of “the shape of America” which were drawn by real life Las Vegas teenagers (high school students). Though I think with adults the results wouldn’t have been much better. Tip for people who want to actually do this well–don’t start with the outline! Start with the states you know best, and work outward from there, like doing a jigsaw puzzle where you go on a prominent color instead of the edge pieces.
I have a whiteboard in my apartment, which is nice because that way people can erase, but paper and pencil is also valid. I have America down, easily after the trip this summer, and Canada is pretty straight forward so those two can be done together (can you name the ten provinces?). And with that all set, I have moved on to the next obvious choice…
My Current Challenge:
(This is actually going pretty well, I can draw it reasonably, at least the major outline and the western bits. Eastern Europe is much harder, both the country shapes and also figuring out which is which, another month or two.)
