Trivial State of Mind
Here’s an entertaining little exercise if you’ve got work that absolutely must be done by noon and you’re looking for ways to blow the deadline. (Thanks, Kathy!) It’s a map of all the states you’ve visited. Since it leaves no room for nuance, I chose to list only states where I’d spent a couple of days, commingled a little, gone running and otherwise engaged their indigenous charms. I skipped states that I’ve only driven through or landed in briefly but never ventured away from the airport. If those were included, I’d add NE, RI, NJ, WV, KY, MO, IA.
If I excluded states where I’ve done significant time for business but never visited voluntarily, TX would disappear, as would NC, NV, MN and ID. Funny about MN, because I’ve spent so much time at the MSP airport that I probably ought to file an income tax return, but otherwise have only driven directly through it, except for a software class in Eden Prairie. ND gets a checkmark because, on one of our drive-throughs, we took our bikes off the car and rode through the Theodore Roosevelt Badlands park.
create your own visited states map
The idle mind, ever striving for its own extinguishment, wonders how much the map would shrink if it included only states where it had had sex. It conjures the image of Mrs. Perils saying, “It better shrink a lot!” Shrinkage is indeed the wise choice here.
