Overheard Starbuck

"I knew the capitals of the fifty states before I understood how rivers, even the river a mile from my school, made most cities and towns possible."
---"Students don't go on eighth-grade trips to rivers. ... Rivers are not seats of government with huge old buildings with columns and domes. ... Rivers don't have colleges or sports teams. They're not symbols of civic pride."
"On a blank map of the US I can point to the location of each and every state. ... I know their names, where there are in relationship to each other and a little bit about when they first appeared but I know almost nothing about how those places got there."
---"So you enjoy looking at maps and you're not so interested in history or politics? --Or anthropology??"
"I'm amazed at how much time I spent on the names and map-locations of man-made over naturally occurring places and so little attention to the 'how' those 'things' got there and what's becoming more and more important the 'why' of them."
"'Why this river? Why this mountain? This highway? This town?'"
"Exactly."
---"That's crazy. You can have a conversation with a stranger about where some place is and maybe when and how it got that way, but you can't go around talking to people about 'why' a place--a river or a town-- exists. There're no ready answers for those questions."
"There's no there there?"
---"There're too many answers. ... Who cares? Who has that kinda time?"
"Who! I forgot who! Who made this town? Who made these structures? Who gives the names? Who did this?!"
---"I give up."