Studying Google Maps brought back the globe in a rush of memory.
This is the console table in my office. I have had this globe since I was eight. Can you believe it? And can you believe the light still works??? I have to admit I don't turn it on very often, because if the bulb burns out, I don't think there's any way to replace it.
My grandmother (who lived with us) had a subscription to National Geographic all through my childhood. We would spend hours with each new issue, reading all the articles and poring over the photographs.
We charted imaginary journeys on the globe with crayon, which could easily be wiped off to accommodate the next adventure. My grandmother was fascinated by anything to do with Egypt. The pyramids, the Nile, the pharoahs. I still have her gorgeous coffee table book from the Tutankamen exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art in 1976--that was one of the highlights of her life. Sadly, she never discovered the Amelia Peabody books--she'd have adored them.
But for me, it was Africa that captured my imagination.
I dreamed of Kenya and the Great Rift Valley, the cradle of mankind. I studied gorillas with Jane Goodall, and trod the Serengeti with the Masai. Eventually, I studied biology, with a focus on animal behavior, an interest begun, I'm sure, with those Nat Geo issues. When I read Marcus Westberg's essay, it occurred to me to wonder how much that childhood exposure to other cultures and places shaped my adult view of the world.
REDs and readers, did you travel the world with National Geographic? Do you still, now that Nat Geo is on TV and Instragram?
And how's your geography these days? Could you put your finger on Malawi without looking it up?
