If you’ve been paying any attention to the news this week, then you know that Google Maps changed the name of a body of water for users accessing their site from within the United States. US users will now see what was once the Gulf of Mexico renamed the Gulf of America, honoring of course the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci. This is what passes for progress these days in Washington, well that and apparently defunding cancer research and consumer protection.

Google regularly modifies its maps to please people in various countries. So, for example, if you’re in China you will see one map that shows the border between China and India, and if you are in India you will see a completely different map showing this contested border. Similarly, if you live anywhere outside of the United States it will still be listed as the Gulf of Mexico (or whatever your country calls this body of water) when you look it up on Google Maps.

One thing about maps that live digitally on the internet is that they can be updated pretty easily when roads change or elected officials have a hissy fit. That wasn’t always the case. We used to print our maps out on paper. The fancy ones were bound in books called Atlases while the more practical ones were printed on large sheets of paper that once unfolded could never be folded back in quite the right way. We used to keep these things in our car. In fact, if you’re a young person wondering why we call that spot in the car where we store extra charging cables and bottles of water a map pocket, well that’s because they used to be stuffed with improperly folded up maps. Then again, maybe no one calls them map pockets anymore.

Besides the pile of maps in our cars, we had a world Atlas in our house. Like any Atlas it had once been accurate, but then eventually became out of date. Two Germanys became one, Czechoslovakia became two, the USSR became Russia. The world, like the English language is an ever-evolving thing. For us humans, we try to stay up to date, but change isn’t always easy.

I still call it the Garden State Arts Center because that’s what it was called when I was a kid, but it’s gone through at least two corporate-sponsorship-induced name changes since then. I just had to make use of Google Maps to remember what they changed the name of the Tappan Zee Bridge to. It’s now the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, and perhaps that’s what the younger generations will call it, and they’ll be confused by us old farts who keep calling it the Tappan Zee. Likewise I can’t imagine many of us oldsters calling that body of water between Florida and Texas anything but the Gulf of Mexico. Old dogs are not very good at learning new tricks and whatnot.

Atlases and paper maps don’t go out of date because physically the world is changing (Well, unless California falls into the ocean or Florida gets swallowed up by the ever-rising gulf of whatever.) they go out of date because the labels we slap on them get changed. As someone who works so much with words, they can be powerful things and they should be used responsibly, but no matter how much you wield them they cannot change reality. Even if the names of places have changed those old paper maps, though bloated and puffy from misfolding are still accurate.

May you always find your way in the world, my friends.

— Alissa

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Weekly Inspiration

What I’m Reading: Wired (March/April 2025)

What I’m Watching: SNL Beyond 50

What I’m Listening to: “Why Does the Sun Shine?” by They Might Be Giants

Find out more about my books at alissagrosso.com

Find out more about my art at alissacarin.com

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My apologies for the typos and such this post is almost certainly riddled with.