Wayfinding – The Art and Science of How We Find and Lose Our Way (Michael Bond)
Book Review
Our family car used to boast several road maps of Ireland which were laboriously puzzled over each summer as the McCulloughs winded their way across incredibly small roads with a caravan and roof box attached (such roads were not conducive for Gameboys or reading). Perhaps for you, your memory of maps is the dreaded task of map reader on a Duke of Edinburgh excursion.
How do we find our way? Well for many of us, without Google Maps we would never get from A to B (sometimes on the strangest of routes). Others might rely on the familiarity of landmarks or structured routes, and some are better than others at tying those routes into a larger mental map (no Anselm, the Lisburn road is not in East Belfast). And how do we get lost? Our phone battery dies, we wander off the well-trodden path in the forest park, we take a wrong turn, we try to find somewhere in Magherafelt beyond the realms of phone signal.
In a world of GPS devices it is perhaps beyond baffling for many of us how anyone moved about the world without such devices - but humans are hardwired wayfinders who have long created spatial connections in our brains: images and maps without the help of satellites. Michael Bond’s book Wayfinding is a fascinating and exceedingly well written exploration into the science and stories of human navigation. From looking at brain function mapping, Inuit trail finders, and the wanderings of children interweaved with gripping personal tails, Bond maps a comprehensive and engaging look at how incredible it is for us to be able to both find and lose our way in the world around us.
Whilst inevitably containing some evolutionary worldview about the development of wayfinding in the brain (differing world views invite us to engage critically with the text) I couldn’t help but be struck when reading of the exact brain components that enable us to navigate this world of our loving Creator. In our complex brain wiring are the tools to “fill and subdue” (Genesis 1:28) the world God made, both in the physical practicality of human kind filling the earth but also in the wonder of continuing to navigate and explore the beauty of the creation we have been placed within. I thoroughly recommend that you pick up Bond’s book and enjoy its fascinating content, and also to be more engaged with your physical moving in the world around you. So often we are so absorbed in getting from A to B in a rush that we fail to engage the navigation part of our brains and rush pass what might delight, intrigue, stimulate, and prompt to praise.
“navigation also reveals other truths, if we engage with it fully: a vivid experience of place, and the knowledge that you are here. These are eternal truths. They matter to us as they mattered to the first wayfinders. The journey is still important. There is still a world out there to explore, and we need to find a way through it.”
We are not just spiritual beings, but physical too: a body, soul and mind over which God pronounced, “it is very good.” (Genesis 1:31) There is much to marvel in how God created us physically and much to delight in if we lift our head from the blue arrow on our devices and breathe in the world around us. Perhaps it is time you took yourself somewhere to dander and to get lost, not to be anywhere particular but to engage the God given navigation tools wired into our brains and drink in the physical world around us.
