(Don’t look now, but it’s the Amish Tech Support Blog A Day Tour!)
Dr. Weevil (who doesn’t seem to ping weblogs.com, the naughty naughty man), strikes a chord with something in his Misleading Geography post:
Next 6 Exits
When was the last time you heard of some geographical feature being endless?
When was the last time somebody talked about being tossed in a bottomless pit?
When was the last time you heard of someone going outside exploring for a fountain of youth instead of looking for it in a science lab?
Even the “endless” pasta bowl at the Olive Garden is just a metaphor, you know. They just keep bringing you different bowls. It’s not like there’s The Well of Pasta in the back room where they lower buckets, make a wish, and pull up your dinner. (There’s a separate well for bringing up the sauces, by the way)
We have minded the legends out of our world, and there are no more myths left in the veins of our history. Movies, television shows, and books now provide artificial legends and myths, like a once-proud wild animal receiving Purina Endangered Species Chow at the zoo while a parade of snot-nosed primates walk past and gawk.
When man finally gets the opportunity to explore other worlds, will his sense of wonder and fear lead to a new age of serpents roaming the maps of the seas and thoughts of demons beyond the vast walls he builds to protect his spreading empires? For this, we must explore beyond our world, because without legends and myths to lure us into the future, our species will truly perish.