Here There Be Dragons

Y'know those old maps made back in the 1600's? The ones in the museums? I do...

I remember those old maps and the fanciful names given to fanciful lands which actually didn't exist. Proportion was just beginning to be understood in those days and the art of surveying was quite crude. The maps were usually just approximations of here-say and guesses. However, the one thing I loved about first seeing those maps was the term which I once saw put in the unknown lands to the north of Siberia. The cartographer had written "Here There Be Dragons" and had drawn a nice dragon curled up upon rocks.

"Here There Be Dragons"

Doesn't that describe something which sends chills up your spine? The unknown land where anything can happen. The special place where a man can find his fortune or his demise. Sinbad and his voyages of discovery.

I think this is why man invents things... there is a run-away curiosity within our hearts which fires our seeking of the extremities of known space. It's funny I never thought it could be so simple as that. I kept thinking it was a nobler reason. Now I know it doesn't have to be.

Edmund Hillary hit it upon the head when he said, "Because It's There".