Foot orienteering

The term “maps” spelled backwards is “spam”. Two whole different words that represent heads and tails of the same coin of four letters.

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 photograph is a digital representation of a particular moment. An architectural model is a representation of a building. A sculpture is a representation of the human anatomy, art or nature. A statue is a representation of an important person, event or even a pet (for instance the statue of Hachiko built in 1934 at Shibuya Station, Japan). And, a map is a representation of a place, of a piece of land that sometimes we call home and sometimes we call new home or temporary home. It is a piece of paper representing lots of information, both objective and subjective information.

Before maps came along, people used to guide themselves with resources Mother Nature provided them with: stars, wind, ants, the sun…. Then, maps drawn in paper appeared which was a huge leap for the society at that time. Maps and cars, together, were the basics for summer vacation. Years after, internet, GPS and the satellites placed in orbit, acting as the cameras from the Big Brother TV show watching out every single human being in the planet Earth, snatched the leadership from paper maps. At the end of the day, a map is a map you would say, it doesn’t matter if drawn in a paper or showed in a smartphone screen; but, I will tell you something: there are things which screen maps cannot show you that paper maps can, paper maps are not just political or physical maps, paper maps can be whatever you want them to be—they can represent home, a new experience, a bad experience, even feelings deeply buried inside your flesh. 

I still believe, typing these very words with my Macbook, that electronic devices don’t show us all the magic and reality kept inside things which are real, which you can touch. It’s not the same, lots of people would disagree with me now, an eBook in which you can stuff hundreds of books inside (it really only shows a bunch of words well-organized in a blank background) than a real book, printed in laid, marbled or wove paper. A book can mean a memory of a trip you took, or it can remind you of a person just by touching and sensing it. Touch is one of the five “traditional” senses we often forget we have (we are so used to touch only the inert glass of our phones or plastic of our laptops). In this regard, a map and a book are the same. I still remember one time when my family and I were on the car on our way to the Pyrenees, when my mom took out from the glove compartment of the car that old road atlas they used to give you not to get lost, before Google Maps came into the picture. I saw a tear going down all the way from the left eye to her mouth— “Wow, this is old… we used to use this all the time when I was a kid to go to my grandparents’ place” she said trying her best to hide all those feelings that were riding a roller coaster inside her. Those tears were the perfect response of what maps are able to bring out of you.

I am beyond grateful to have been born in an era where technology facilitates the way we live in this world; I cannot imagine myself going through hundreds of books in the library just to write a paper, trying to write in a typewriter or even communicating via letter—however, I do like some things the old-fashioned way, and maps are one of those (a must-have in my bag for travelling)—and I am pretty sure an orienteering athlete would be on my side.