Creatures of Habit

This is a map outline of the city of Portland. The dark hash marks represent areas I’ve visited in the city since calling it home.

I just got back from a lunch run during which I crossed the Willamette river on the Broadway bridge. That view used to stop me in my tracks. Standing high on the longest bascule bridge (AKA lift bridge) in the world I would take in the cityscape glinting against the hills, the snow capped mountains in the distance and the weirdly majestic riverside industry. 

Today I didn’t even pause, I just ran on thinking about laundry and how to approach an edit I needed to finish. This, taking for granted a beautiful view that formerly enamored me, struck me on my cool-down walk home. The thought sent me off on a tangent about how quickly we take things for granted. How quickly we develop patterns that become habits and how we often leave interesting discoveries just the next block over. 

I thought about how, just days before I moved from Minneapolis, I discovered The Museum of Russian Art. How could I live in a place for 8 years and not know of this institution just miles from my home?

This line of thinking prompted me to make the above map which depicts how much of my city I have yet to explore. I’m hoping to use it to motivate myself to get off the known and comfortable paths both geographically and metaphorically speaking.

Shit, we’re out of detergent.