Geography

            For example, we have all been taught through Geography about locations; continents, countries, states, counties, cities, towns, streets. We are taught to follow lines on a map, to label outlined chunks with a fancy name and then routinely list them off as a test of our supposed intellect.
            Now, I want you to picture yourself where you are. Zoom out as if you are rising in a hot air balloon. Take yourself farther and farther up: over the buildings, the trees, the marshmallow clouds, out of Earth’s atmosphere, into the position of an orbiting satellite, and then fix your gaze on our planet.
            Tell me, what do you see? A rugged landscape surrounded by vast expanses of ocean, correct? There are not any lines, there are not any names, there is not anything labeling anything at all. These places we previously thought we were are simply land formations on an orbiting sphere that is held together by gravity.
            None of our supposed countries/cities/towns exist; they are all a makeshift idea, a figment of the human imagination. These ‘places’ are only thumb tacks on a map, thumb tacks piercing a piece of paper, but containing nothing in reality.
            There are no ‘places,’ there are no ‘borders;’ there is only a piece of paper overlaid upon a sphere of terrain. These ‘places’ are merely arbitrary reference points with artificial labels, for ease of human traveling and congregation.

            Understanding this, we realize there is nothing separating us from each other, aside from the boundaries we make for ourselves. This includes not only the walls we touch, but also – and primarily – the walls in our minds. And once we rid ourselves of these walls, or at least stop patrolling them, something extraordinary happens: everything connects together and becomes one; one civilization, one world, one universe.
            And so, if you can,
           
                        “Remind me if you will exactly what we’re fighting for…”
                                   -Anthony Kiedis “Easily”


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