A different view

Arkansas from 19,000 feet up

IT DOESN’T look the same from up here, but it’s still home sweet home way down there. The latest digitalized map of Arkansas may not feature red and blue highways or Metroplan’s latest plan to mess with traffic. But peering down on it from this height, Gentle Reader may still recognize it as the place we started from, where we spent our lives, and hope to return at the end of our days. For what else is home, and why else does the very word have such a sweet ring in our ears?

This up-to-date digital map, which incorporates 30,066 images of the state’s terrain, can’t depict the ineffable qualities of a place. The state’s governor, Asa Hutchinson, knows very well the usefulness of such a map, as well as how important it is to have qualities that don’t show on a map. Qualities like the patience and faith Asa Hutchinson displayed when leading a delegation to end a standoff years ago that resulted in all involved coming in safely. Whew.

An aerial view of Arkansas may be impressive when it comes to attracting industry, drawing boundary lines, and giving emergency crews and first responders the information they need to do their jobs. But even if such missions comprise only a small percentage of the assignments these maps may help carry out, they’re 100 percent important if it’s you or your family these maps are saving.

It’s quite a view these maps present, but nothing like the one of the human heart and mind that are unveiled in a moment of crisis when every second counts, and all hold their breaths awaiting the outcome of a manhunt or a fire that threatens to consume home and hearth. At those times, nothing else matters but getting ourselves out safely.