For many people geography is some variation of this memory from their earlier education. One of the courses I teach is the Philosophy and Methodology of Geography. One of the first things I ask of the students is what is their definition of geography?
Any discipline has validity if its practitioners understand its utility to others. So the corollary to defining geography, is the description of a metaphor, analogy or model that explains what the discipline of geography is to those who do not intuitively or innately know, and/or are obscured in their understanding by their previous brush with crayons and outlined shapes of nations and the world.
As often happens to me, I awoke with a burst of inspiration this morning. I keep paper and pen by my bedside to inscribe these pearls of insight before I forget them as I drift off into continued somnolence: in fact, I think the deciphering of my scrawl the morning after a nighttime burst of insight is an activity that drives the creative urge -- if I can interpret my scrawl I can do anything!
So, to geography and its definition. Apparently my brain had dwelt on a feedback question from one of my students asking for my definition of geography. So in completing my own assignment, my nocturnal inspiration is that:
geography is the thin line of discovery that separates enlightenment from oblivion.
For me, the here and the now is always contextualized by an awareness of the landscape with which I am engaged: the environmental, economic and social dynamics of space and place at any point in time. Thus, lifelong learning is the journey of discovery to enlightenment that accompanies the awareness of the myriad of landscapes through which I travel, engage and experience.
