3MF

Where am i

In Morning's At Seven, Carl has a where-am-i spell. He becomes confused and overwhelmed by the world because he can't answer the simple question of "where am i." It seems I too am experiencing a where-am-i spell. While Carl's spell was more philosophical in nature, my dilemma is purely geographical.

I thought i lived in the City of Walker. I paid them lots of money in taxes and they gladly accepted it. Yesterday i got a letter from the city of Grand Rapids telling me i own them lots of money for taxes because i live in Grand Rapids. It seems everyone wants a cut of my money. So i went onto the Walker web site to see if i could find a map with city lines. Sure enough, i'm just a few feet outside of Walker. In fact, as you can tell from my ridiculously exaggerated illustration, they went out of their way to not include me.

No i have to re-file to see if Walker will give me back my money they undeservingly took so i can pay off Grand Rapids before they rough me up. I enjoy filing federal and state taxes, but every year these damn city taxes mess me up.

I guess this is just an example of how crazy borders really are. Mankind was fought for centuries to determine where exactly where someone's land ends and someone else's begins. When I look at a map, it's covered with lines partitioning off cities, counties, states and countries. But when i'm driving around, there's nothing to really tell me when i've move into a new territory. Borders are more of a concept than an actual thing in most cases. At some point, someone arbitrarily choose where to draw the line.

Posted by Matthew at June 18, 2004 06:23 PM