You never know when one’s view of the world will be turned on its head… in more ways than one.

Such was the case 18 November 2010 just North of Quito Ecuador, when and where my Spanish teacher was kind enough to take me on a field trip outside the city in order to practice my fledgling broken Español and get an intimate taste of indigenous culture.

In addition to the scenic countryside and bustling villages along the way, we enjoyed two noteworthy stops: Pululahua (an exemplar of humans working with nature) and Mitad del Mundo (a quirky tourist trap, but one which taught me a priceless life lesson, explained below).

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Pululahua

Pululahua is a dormant volcano just North of Quito. It’s caldera, about three miles wide, produces an amazing microclimate where condensation, not precipitation, is the primary source of precious water, enabling her indigenous population to collect drinking water and farm the rich volcanic soil.

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Mitad del Mundo

Mitad del Mundo (literally center of the earth) is worth a hour’s visit to enjoy the quirky exhibits…

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But the best part (and the point of this post) came as a total surprise and struck me like a ton of bricks…

[scroll down to see what I am talking about]

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Mind blown…

… as I realized that the map above is not just a different way to look at the world, but in many ways a more equitable, practical, and accurate way to look at how the world turns, literally.

Of course this begs a few obvious questions:

How had I become so conditioned to think that North is “up” and South is “down”?

How had I allowed myself to become so Northern Hemisphere centric?

How had I uncritically accepted the perspective and influence of the European map makers?

We need not discuss the obvious answers here and now, but we do need to go deeper… as you’ll see in my lessons learned below…

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Lessons Learned

First, a confession. While my brain easily understands this alternative map of the world intellectually, such is not enough to instantly and effortlessly rewire the visual map already deeply embedded in my mind’s eye. I still find it extremely difficult not to think and see North as “up”.

Second, a realization. The “North is up” paradigm is not just an abstract notion, but is deeply and subconsciously encoded in the neural nets of my brain. “North is up” is not merely an abstract idea. “North is up” has been turned into flesh. In other words, “North is up” is not just software. It’s hardware.

Third, a wee bit of humility is in order. This literal and figurative change of perspective has taught me ever since to wonder what other far more consequential preconceptions, centricities and prejudices I’ve uncritically internalized over the years. Perhaps I will never know. Perhaps I can never know. But I can at least begin by leaving to door open to the possibility that I am not as immune to bias as I’d like to think.

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