What about the Tesla Coil, flourescent lighting and Extra Low Frequency - lighting up 40 watt bulbs stuck in the sand? Leland -----Original Message----- From: Ken Follett <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> Date: Monday, February 16, 1998 3:00 PM Subject: Maps Are Us >John Leeke mentioned the idea of spreading the IPTW to Alabama etc. My >brother, Jim Follett, mentioned he thought Alabama etc. needed more dirt work >than hand. Bryan asked for a clarification. I responded, and caused Bryan to >respond wondering what the hell I was talking about, to which I now respond. > >I see on BP an effort to put common definitions on the table. I support this >initiative and encourage it by falling out of my chair, therefore causing >everyone to get alarmed and insist on some decorum at the table. > >We all carry different maps. There is that idea that was bouncing around on >BP of getting historic preservation on the psychic map. Which psychic map? We >all have different psychic maps. > >After 40 years of relating to each other I may have no idea what my brother >meant by his comment, then again, it has never stopped me from pretending to >understand. We also seem to have just fine of a time missunderstanding past >each other, it is a habit we seem to enjoy. > >What I was expressing was an early map of mine which I shared with my brother, >and a few others. As a kid we had five acres of woods and a lot of sticks and >stones to play with. We called it a sand pile, though there was not much sand, >mostly leaf humus. I’m not sure how it started but we sat down in the dirt and >built villages, towns, communities, cities, kingdoms, and empires out of the >sticks, stones, and dirt. When we moved to the local crick (a small creek) we >had merchant fleets that we enjoyed chasing and sinking. We were always flying >off somewhere, to a rotted stump or the barbecue pit (our earliest experience >of skyscrapers). > >You can make a semi-circle of small stones and set a flat stone on top and >call it a house. It can also serve as a redoubt for gray or blue plastic Civil >War soldiers. Small twigs pounded into the ground would serve as corrals for >the twisted horses, chickens, and pigs. You can then take a larger rock and >drop it out of the sky on your houses, like with Enola Gay. Sometimes you miss >and the puppeteers get bruised. A different sort of experience than Sim City. >Our bombs were not always smart and on occasion we hit each other. This >usually resulted in our neglecting the empire while a more godlike battle >ensued, therefore saving the empire, and all it’s little buildings for another >day... preservation by neglect. > >At about 11 years I stood up one day and said I was leaving the sand pile, I >felt an urge for a wider mapping of my world. I have been working my way back >ever since. > >When I lived in the Washington, DC area I drove cab in MD for 14 days. During >that time if I fell asleep I dreamed the map. Much of my supervisory career in >construction has consisted of driving to some other place, like the hardware >store or the stone quarry. I have always had a need to know where things are, >and who is where there with them as well. The buildings are a decoration to >the human play. I like driving around, it is an extension of Sam Walton’s idea >of management by wandering around. I keep the world in an orderly fashion by >visiting it often. It helps to have well developed psychic maps. I encourage >everyone to develop good maps in their heads. After I mastered the wandering >in DC I was able to move to NYC. I continued to make a living, not so much >from having intelligence, as from being able to be sent somwhere with the >expectation that I would return in a reasonable amount of time. I continue to >wander around. Wandering around is the best part of my work. > >Outside of my maps, as with everyone else, there is a vast nothingness that I >have heard is populated. I go there once in a while in order to find the >other, something different than myself. > >One aspect of my early map development was visiting all these historic >villages in the US and Canada. My brother has these places in his map as well. >I don’t share his psychic map of Alabama. Then again, he does not share many >of my maps. > >Which gets back to John Leeke’s original suggestion... that consideration >should be made for staging future “trade” (IPTW) oriented events with more >imagination regarding American geography, the distribution and character of >historic structures, and the distibution of those skilled (or unskilled but >still stuck with the task) in maintaining these structures. > >][<en Follett