The Edges of the World That I’ve Found
By JohnMichael McCann
I am no great explorer but by happenstance I’ve stumbled upon places where I’m
certain there is nothing beyond. The edges of the world are not where any map might
suggest. I’ve found an edge of the earth in Texas. I’m not sure if the edge was where
Northern Mexico is supposed to be or if it was North, only that there was nothing beyond
the high wall we stood upon. I do not want to know. I am content knowing that if I take a
flight to ****** and then drive ** hours *****, I will enter *****. There, I park the car
and head up the stairs to the right. After five hours or so of walking I will get there. Or
maybe not. Maybe the edge has moved. They crumble like rocks into the sea and I can
vouch for none of them today. Or maybe a volcano has exploded and the edge is further.
Maps only reveal so much and often obscure as much as they show.
I found another edge of the world in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. It was
on an island and there was a church where I’m certain god was in the water. I do not care
what they say. The water is infinite.
If I told you the name of the nearest town, it would cease to be an edge of the world and
instead would be ************* on ************ in ********** *******. The water
would lose its depth and I’m afraid you would be able to skim over the surface. The journey
to or from land would become laughably easy. To get there I fell out of a tree directly
into a conversation with someone I once wrote off. With blinding trust and wildfires
behind me, I began my journey.
I found another one in Spain. I had been walking for a month to get to a town not
far from the edge. The people I had walked with did not want to stop so we walked for
another four days. We only paused when we realized the difference between the ground
and the surface of the water would grow above our heads long before we tired of
walking. Maps would tell you what could be found beyond the water above our heads
and even the horizon and then you have that knowledge and then what? Boundaries
exist mostly on maps. A river crossing is a river crossing, unless a map says otherwise.
How one arrives is never explained on a map. A cathedral on foot is more beautiful
than one reached by train. A place found by accident has nothing to lose, while a place
expected can be lost. I mistakenly arrived in Ankara but never saw the city. It has become
a great question mark. To arrive there now would be to correct a decades old mistake.
Had I left the station, I would have been following a path before me.
Maps cannot say where you’ve been and how that changes where you arrive. Maps
limit our possibilities and serve in emergencies. For traveling, use them to find the hotel,
not the city. They have never shown me a place that belongs to me and only me, like those
edges of the world. The places I write here can only be found along paths that I could
never repeat if I spent a lifetime looking for them.
The world is flat or round but either way it has edges and corners that can only be
found without tools. What I describe to you as an edge, you might experience as round.
The world has changed since it was last discovered and has unfound places yet.
One day I’m certain that our lives will be found at the center of a great archeological
discovery and those who found us will be hailed as great travelers who went beyond
horizons to lands unseen and theirs will have been a journey of Homer.
Bio: JohnMichael McCann is a 27 year old writer based out of New York City who went to university in Colorado Springs. Life has taken him across countries and continents in search of what is worth carrying forward and helping to make endure. He has been published in Versopolis, Khaotic Good and Lunar Sea among other publications.
Instagram: @jmwyjacy
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