Geography

I am ashamed to admit that I am one of those Americans poor in Geography. Perhaps, that is the reason I have no sense of direction. In fact, geography was never taught until I attended college; at which time, I completely ignored it. As I had a poor background in geography, all art historical references to cities were, to my mind, somewhere in Europe. Frankly, it wasn't until ten-years ago that I discovered the location of Wales! I always thought Wales was an island off the southern-most tip of England, and the only way to reach it was by ship. But then, you would run into France.

So, now, as I read the international news I check to see on both my atlas and globe where each discussed country is located. The hardest area to lock in my mind is the Middle East which beat out Africa, another country that has taken me years to understand how different is the north from the south.

Discussing my Middle East predicament with a friend, she suggested, "It's because, if they're not warring with each other (or another), their borders always seem to be changing."

"You mean like Illinois would go to war with Wisconsin?"

"Yes."

"Maybe what we should do is confuse the rest of the world. We should move our contiguous borders every 20 years. But first, every year, we could change the name of our state capitals."

"Or better yet. Change every state capital's name to the same one name."

[I know this would work to confuse others. In my western suburb outside of Chicago each town is jammed one-against-another. Best yet. Each town has a main street called "Main Street!" After 25 years here, I still don't know what town I'm in.]

Ida Kotyuk©

www.portraits-oils.com

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