rivervox

Just got back from an expedition to a music store in Fenway. A neighborhood that I have visited on many occasions. I know precisely where it is and I could easily give you directions. But today, I took the subway there and when I came up from underground I had a profound sense of disorientation. Spinning around frantically trying to find a landmark, even though I was standing right next to one. I grew dizzy, nauseous and weak. It was as if Symphony Hall had been sucked up and placed on another continent in another city and I had mysteriously gone with it, rather like the Doctor Who episode "Smith & Jones" where a hospital is transported from London to the Moon by the Judoon with the Doctor and Martha inside. Here was the 112 year old  brick edifice at my back, which I KNOW is on Mass Ave & Huntington. Solid and real, but not where I expected it to be. Finally, I deciphered the street signs and saw the music store and realized that where my location sense was telling me I was had been scrambled underground. The whole city spun before my eyes, as my internal compass adjusted and I became reoriented, just as when you are using a GPS and take a wrong turn. Recalculating! Looking for signal! WTF! Make a U Turn! It felt as if my brain was actually rewiring itself.

Why am I writing about this? Because I want to record what goes on inside my head at these moments. I have a good sense of direction. I have something like Google Earth in my mind's eye. I just know where North is. When you ask me for directions, I pull up  the city map in my head and swoop around like a crow. Having talked to my husband about this, it's clear that not everyone has this ability or thinks about location this way and I find it fascinating.

Some theorize that we, like other creatures, can sense magnetic North. It certainly feels physical to me. Others say it depends on where and how you grew up. My youth was spent rambling in the woods and fields, either on foot or on horseback. I know every feature of the part of the Susquehanna Valley I grew up in and where everything is in relation to everything else. The river runs South, the sun rises over this hill and sets over that one. These absolutes anchored my life. Having spent more than 20 years in Boston, I thought I had this down too or at least the bits I frequent. Clearly more exploration is needed. Exclesior!