Geography

A random question arose in our household a few weeks ago prompted by something I was reading, "How far is it from the Arctic Circle to the North Pole?" I could see the look of despair on my husband's face as he tried to muster up an answer that would stop such nonsense. My college-aged niece was also with us and she politely looked interested. I teach middle school so I am accustomed to blank stares and apathy. I repeated the question again and my husband finally responded with another question, "Isn't the Arctic Circle and the North Pole the same?"

Now I knew I had my work cut out for me. "No, they are not the same. It's like the Tropic of Capricorn not being the same as the equator."

He gave me another loud and clear look of you-are-not-seriously-going-to-continue-with-this-Jeopardy-question, are you?

Undeterred by the lackluster conversation engagement, I asked a leading question, "Let's start by determining the latitude of the North Pole, which is....?"

< Insert crickets chirping>

"You know, the lines that circle the earth parallel to the equator," I added.

It was crystal clear to my husband and niece that there was no way off this convo train until resolution of the matter occurred. Each of them threw out a number with hopeful lilts in their voices. Neither was correct, so I dazzled them with my reasoning, "We live at 44 degrees N. latitude, halfway between the equator and the North Pole. The Arctic Circle is a little more than halfway between us and the North Pole so my guess is that the Arctic Circle is about 70 degrees N. latitude."

Suffice it to say no one was dazzled.

"Okay, let's settle this and look it up in the atlas."

I pulled out my handy dandy World Atlas, circa 1990, and flipped to the map of North America. "Now all we have to do is figure out how many miles are in each degree per latitude and we'll have this puzzle solved."

I dusted off my map skills and began measuring distances and converting them to miles. As I computed out loud, it was clear to all parties that I was losing myself in the weeds. Somehow my math was not matching distances and I was no closer to an answer than when the madness began. My husband was mentally checking out and reaching for the TV remote to create a diversion.

Finally, my niece sweetly responded, "You could Google it."

My husband and I locked eyes and exhaled a sigh of relief. Yes. Yes. That made perfect sense.

I handed my computer over to my niece and she started tap-tap-tapping away and in a few seconds she had the answer to my question. Problem solved.

Clearly, my brain is still paper wired. Telephone books and fold-out maps feel comfortable in my hands. Siri and search engines require concentration and translation. Writing a reminder note in cursive flows easily. Finding the memo app on a screen demands closer scrutiny. My world thinks in World Book rather than Wikipedia.

And just in case you are curious, the North Pole is about 1600 miles from the Arctic Circle. Such information could come in handy the next time you are wandering around in the Yukon Territory.