Now Surveying Her Future

Imagine telling a person's life story through maps.

In my case, it would start with a city grid (Washington, DC) and eventually change to a planned close-in suburban community, only to be followed by a return to the logical patterns of a couple of cities. And none of the maps would be drawn by yours truly.

But in the case of George Washington, a man who died with over ninety maps in his personal collection, some were by his own hand, while others served him during key periods in his life.

Today's Banner Lecture at the Virginia Historical Society began with the President making an historical joke about settlers praising Virginia's temperate breezes. "I'm glad they were right," he joked.

From the back came an enormous guffaw and snort, to which he responded, "Clearly some people already have heatstroke."

Barnet Schecter's topic was "George Washington's America: A Biography Through His Maps" and he wove a history of the man using only maps as visuals and reference points.

From his early connections to Lord Fairfax's massive land holdings on the Northern Neck (I pass GW's mother's house when I visit my parents out there), it became obvious that GW was fiercely ambitious, sure of what he wanted and going after it to get it.

Maps were Washington's way of thinking about the world; he seemed to presume that whoever had the most detailed information regarding the terrain had the advantage. At the time, he was no doubt correct.

From maps of Mount Vernon to maps he did of the wilderness and Canadian border to maps of Boston Harbor used to help the colonist fight the British, it was clear what an important role they played.

On the subject of the latter, I was fascinated to learn that French map dealers traded heavily with the nearby Brits and thus were able to supply the revolutionaries here with maps of the British armaments in places like Boston. How convenient was that?

The last map we saw was drawn by Washington while still in office but when he was dreaming about returning to the gentleman farmer life.

It showed Mount Vernon as he hoped to see it; after emancipating his slaves, the adjoining land would be farmed by capable agriculturalists who would then hire the freed blacks to work the land and earn a living.

Sadly, his slaves weren't freed until after he died, but it's thought-provoking to imagine how the course of history might have changed if his vision had been realized. And his vision was laid out on a map.

Of course, nobody uses maps anymore, except maybe me occasionally. With no use for the whole GPS revolution, I still occasionally need to pull out a map and I always find it satisfying to do so and figure out what I need to  know.

If only everything I needed to know could be found on a map. Perhaps I need to lay out my own map for the future, like the great man did.

Nah, I'm pretty happy just fumbling toward ecstasy, whatever that may be.