The Consolation of Maps

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The fountain at Bryant Park and the back of
the New York City Public Library.

On March 11, I was in New York City again, waiting to take the train to Mystic, Connecticut because my Dad’s health took a turn for the worst.  I’m not sure – I might have to cancel my Savannah / American dream / book road trip.

A favorite, the Grace Building.

I sat in Bryant Park, slurping up a decaf cappuccino, and immediately spotted the Staples at 39^th and Sixth Avenue.  I needed a map of the U.S., not an atlas with each state isolated on its own page.  I wanted to see the whole picture, the whole country, on one page, and I wanted to compare the distance between New York and Savannah to the distances out west.

I wanted to eat a brownie, so I went into Staples.  This makes sense.  I can’t eat brownies, but I can have office supplies.  The pens (gel, rollerball, ballpoint, exclusive, everyday) and all the colorful things you can buy to organize your work, nearly drive me as insane as brownies do. 

A building on 40th Street topped with gold,
gleaming in the afternoon sun.

So I browsed in there, found the maps and atlases.  They offered one of the Eastern U.S. and one of the whole country.  I liked seeing the big expanse, the whole West that’s waiting; I liked seeing just the Eastern seaboard, because the map was more detailed since it covered less ground.

I’d like to open the maps now, now that I’m rocketing on MetroNorth from Grand Central up through the Bronx and Westchester toward Mystic to see my Dad.  But I would annoy the passenger next to me.  I will open the maps and cherish them when I get home.

Grand Central.