Songlines, Bruce Chatwin’s book about native customs in Australia, describes how aboriginal peoples made their way through the wilderness using memorized maps of story and song handed down from generation to generation.
Naming all the things in one’s route could assure the ancient travelers’ direction and survival.
The modern traveler seems to need neither song nor memory to navigate the world. Highly accurate paper maps show the way, or robots call out directions and even landmarks, recalculate their advice when a wrong turn is made, respond to commands from their master or mistress, provide the number of feet and minutes in whatever journey.
One might say that these navigation tools are far superior to aboriginal ones, are equally based on and dependent on culture, and are essential for getting around the globe – rather than simply a local region.
So which tools might be better for understanding one’s place on the planet? Electronic devices can answer almost any question about space and time, but the songline singer is intimately connected to the feel and texture of the land, creates space and time with measured verse.
Maybe the question about “better” is the wrong question. Maybe the question might be: “With which sorts of tools can you love the land and feel its love for you??”
Sweet Siri, the almost omniscient voice of many smart phones can tell you many things, but always you must walk the walk.
This is Bill Felker with Poor Will’s Almanack. I’ll be back again next week with notes for the third week summer. In the meantime, taste the late summer berries, walk the walk – but leave your phone at home.
