I stumbled across this “upside down” map of the world today, which prompted me to change my desktop background. And subsequently reminded me of one of my favorite West Wing episodes ever, the second “Big Block of Cheese” day episode, in which CJ meets with the “lunatic mapmakers.”

There’s a website showing the relevant clips from the episode, plus some information about the Peterson Project Map. It always baffles me that Greenland is shown so large on most maps.  I’m reminded that not everything is the way it appears.

This week, every time I look at my desktop, the “upside down” map is going to remind me to approach life from a fresh perspective. My final cross-country season has come to a close, midterms have gone by, and it would be easy to fall into a rut right now. Instead, much like I used to turn the word search puzzles upside down when I was struggling to find the last few words, I’m going to work on looking at these next few weeks as an opportunity to do things different, start some new projects, and get ahead in my work. Wish me luck!