The Boy and His Map

A short story by Ruven Peskin

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Thousands of years ago, a baby boy was born. This boy’s parents had something very special and helpful—divine, even: a map of the world! By studying this map, the boy would know where the rivers were, where the forests were, where the deserts were—in short, where to go and where to avoid going: how to best survive in this scary world. The boy would spend hours upon hours studying this map, until he had it entirely memorized. Then, when the boy reached 13 years of age, he was ready to head into the world, assured of his safety. But shortly after embarking on his journey, he noticed a pathway that should’ve been there was not! He knew his memory wasn’t the issue, so he rationalized that it must be that the map is true but that there was so much overgrowth that the pathway was no longer visible. But then the boy reached a cliff, nearly falling off. “A cliff?!” he exclaimed. “But there’s not supposed to be a cliff for another 30 miles!” Again, the boy knew his memory wasn’t the issue, so he rationalized that it must be that the map is true but that there was some sort of earthquake that caused this chasm. But then the boy reached a desert when he was trying to get to a river! Parched, the boy exclaimed, “A desert?! Where’s the river?! There’s supposed to be a river here!” Once again, the boy knew his memory wasn’t the issue, so he rationalized that it must be that the map is true but that the river dried up because of the scorching sun. After tens and hundreds of these occurrences, however, the boy finally gave up and said, “To hell with this ‘map’! It’s not an accurate depiction of the terrain! It doesn’t reflect reality at all! And when it does, it’s merely an accident!” So the boy changed his outlook. His new approach was to explore the world as it is. He no longer had a mental map. He no longer had a mental framework. Of course, this was scary and unsettling. But he had no other option. To believe in the accuracy of the map was no longer a possibility for him. Thus the boy continued his days.